A North Carolina judge set aside the death sentence of a convicted killer after concluding Friday that race played a role in the case, a landmark ruling that may call into question a number of death row cases in the state.
The ruling by Cumberland County Superior Court Judge Gregory Weeks, the first under the state’s controversial Racial Justice Act, means that 38-year-old Marcus Robinson now faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. Robinson, who is black, was convicted of first-degree murder in 1994.
At the center of the judge’s ruling is a finding that prosecutors across the state participated in the practice of excluding potential black jurors.
“Robinson introduced a wealth of evidence showing the persistent, pervasive and distorting role of race in jury selection throughout North Carolina,” Weeks wrote in his ruling.
