RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) - North Carolina state senators voted on Wednesday to override the governor’s veto of a measure that would repeal a law allowing death row inmates to challenge their sentences on the basis of racial discrimination.
The Senate’s 31-19 vote shifted the political debate about racial disparity in the legal system to the House of Representatives, which was due to consider an override later on Wednesday.
The state’s Racial Justice Act, which Governor Beverly Perdue signed into law in 2009, allows prisoners on death row to use statistical evidence to challenge their death sentences by showing that racial bias affected their sentencing.
The two-year-old law provides that inmates sentenced to die are entitled to have their sentences changed to life in prison without parole if a judge determines that racial discrimination played a significant role in their sentencing.
Democrats controlled the North Carolina legislature when the law passed in 2009, but Republicans now hold a majority in both chambers. With the support of the state’s district attorneys, Republican lawmakers in November passed legislation effectively gutting the law.
That drew a veto in December from the Democratic governor, who said the legislation amounted to an outright repeal. Perdue said it was unacceptable for prejudice to play a significant role in the application of the death penalty.
Lawmakers returned on Wednesday for a special session to debate overturning the veto.
To override a veto, the state Senate and House each must muster a three-fifths majority of members present. Republicans hold a veto-proof majority in the Senate but need the votes of some Democrats in the House to override a veto.
Republican leaders argued the original Racial Justice Act was too broad and would simply clog the courts and delay justice.
“Just about everyone on death row filed a motion that their case was infected with some racial prejudice,” Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, a Republican said, arguing the original law was too vague.
Supporters of the original law urged lawmakers to sustain Perdue’s veto.
“My friends, we all know we are not a color-blind society,” Democratic Senator Floyd B. McKissick Jr said. “We all know that racial considerations still impact the minds and hearts of many people in this state.”
Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Cynthia Johnston
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