Criminal Justice

The Death Penalty is Broken—and Racist

Marcellus Williams’ story is not an isolated tragedy. It’s part of a system rife with injustice, one that disproportionately targets the poor, the marginalized, and especially people of color. The death penalty, when examined through the lens of racial bias, becomes an even more urgent issue in North Carolina.

In 2009, our state passed the Racial Justice Act (RJA), giving death row inmates like Marcus Robinson the opportunity to challenge their sentences if they could prove that racial discrimination influenced their case. Robinson did just that. He and three other inmates were able to show that race played a significant role in jury selection and sentencing, and they were resentenced to life without parole. Yet in 2013, the state repealed the RJA, slamming the door on future challenges and effectively ignoring the mountain of evidence that racial bias runs rampant in our courts.

Think about that for a moment. We know that Black defendants are far more likely to receive the death penalty when the victim is white. Studies confirm that prosecutors disproportionately strike Black jurors from cases, ensuring that predominantly white juries are left to decide the fate of Black defendants. This isn’t some abstract debate—this is happening right here in North Carolina. Under the repealed RJA, racial bias was proven to influence death penalty cases. What does it say about us as a society when we ignore this reality?

Justice for Some, Death for Others

Take the case of North Carolina v. Bacote. Bacote, like Williams and Robinson, challenged the system’s blatant racial discrimination. His case and others like it revealed how prosecutors systematically removed Black jurors, using underhanded methods to shape trials in favor of death sentences. This isn’t conjecture—it’s fact. The data is there, the patterns are undeniable, yet our courts refuse to act.

Even after the RJA was repealed, these four resentenced individuals continue to raise critical constitutional questions. What happens when new evidence of racial bias emerges? Do we, as a society, turn a blind eye? More disturbingly, can the state now seek to return these individuals to death row, despite their life sentences—a clear violation of the constitutional protection against double jeopardy?

The cracks in our justice system aren’t hypothetical; they’re real. They claim the lives of innocent people, disproportionately Black and marginalized, as the system relentlessly grinds toward “closure”—no matter the cost.

The Death Penalty is a Threat to Everyone

If you think this is just a Missouri problem, think again. Here in North Carolina, we still have the death penalty, and the same legal loopholes, racial biases, and systemic failures could easily lead to an innocent person from your community being killed by the state. Marcellus Williams’ execution wasn’t just a failure of justice; it was a warning.

Since 1973, over 190 individuals on death row have been exonerated across the country. That’s 190 near-misses—190 lives almost taken by the state for crimes they didn’t commit. And how many more innocent people have we failed to save? How many more Marcellus Williamses are out there? With racial disparities as wide as they are—Black defendants are 4.3 times more likely to receive the death penalty when the victim is white—no one should believe this system is fair. It’s a lottery of life and death, where your fate is decided more by the color of your skin than the facts of your case.

A Call to Action: Stop This Before It’s Too Late

So what do we do? We act. We don’t sit idly by, watching the state continue to play executioner in a broken system. We fight to abolish the death penalty, not just in Missouri, but right here in North Carolina. We demand that our elected officials stand against a practice that targets the vulnerable and often innocent.

We start by holding our judiciary accountable. Judges hold the power to decide who lives and who dies in this state. We cannot allow them to continue this unchecked authority without demanding fairness and justice. We need to elect judges who will take a stand against racial bias, who will prioritize truth over expedience, and who will reject a system that takes lives with impunity.

And we must remember that this is urgent. The death penalty isn’t some relic of the past. It’s a present, looming threat to every person wrongfully convicted in a deeply flawed system.

Make Your Voice Heard

The time for action is now. Every day that passes is another day when the life of an innocent person could be stolen by the state. If we don’t fight for change, the next person wrongfully convicted could be from your community, your family—or it could be you.

Here’s what you can do:

• Call your representatives. Demand they take action to abolish the death penalty.

• Vote for judges who will prioritize justice over vengeance.

• Join local campaigns and donate to organizations like the Emancipate NC that fight to protect those wrongfully convicted.

Ending the death penalty is about more than fixing a broken system. It’s about saving lives, restoring humanity, and ensuring that no more families endure the nightmare that Marcellus Williams’ family did. We can build a justice system that reflects fairness and compassion—but only if we take action.

We must act now to ensure what happened to Marcellus Williams never happens again—not here, not anywhere.