RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A judge has resentenced an inmate on North Carolina’s death row amid allegations that prosecutors discriminated on the basis of race during jury selection.
The Charlotte Observer reports (https://bit.ly/2kkI9XB) the N.C. Center for Death Penalty Litigation said prosecutors purposefully excluded the only qualified black juror from the 1997 jury that decided the sentence for 39-year-old Phillip Antwan Davis.
In a news release sent Monday, the center said prosecutors had attended a training session where they learned how to give excuses for striking jurors. It said such excuses were used to hide the intent of keeping blacks off the jury. It’s illegal to strike jurors based on race.
Buncombe County District Attorney Todd Williams agreed that Davis should be re-sentenced to life without parole.
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Information from: The Charlotte Observer, https://www.charlotteobserver.com
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