North Carolina Judge Rules Racial Bias Played a Role in Conviction of Black Man Who Spent 15 Years on Death Row

Judge ruled prosecutors unlawfully dismissed Black jurors in Hasson Bacote’s death penalty case and used racist language like “thug” and “predators of the African plain.” (Credit: ACLU)

A North Carolina judge has ruled that racial discrimination influenced the conviction of Hasson Bacote, a Black man who spent 15 years on death row before receiving a pardon in December; now, lawyers are calling on the state to "turn the page" to prevent future injustices.

Judge Wayland J. Sermons Jr. ruled Friday that prosecutors in Bacote's 2009 trial unfairly excluded Black jurors, resulting in a biased trial. Bacote, convicted of a fatal shooting during a robbery, was sentenced to death by a predominantly white jury. His legal team argued that Black jurors were dismissed at three times the rate of white jurors, while the presiding judge and attorneys were all white.