One more scholarly effort can be placed onto that ever-growing stack of research studies that find capital punishment is simply untrustworthy, that it is procedurally flawed.  Never mind the morality.  Or mercy.  Or the growing problem of finding drugs for those lethal injections …. The study nixes the death penalty before these issues even arise.

Matthew Robinson of Appalachian State University Releases April 2011 Study of North Carolina Death Penalty

Professor Matthew Robinson released his research findings from the offices of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice office.  (Professor Robinson maintains his own website here.)

Professor Robinson, at the accompanying press conference, told the media that the procedure of convicting and sentencing an individual to death in North Carolina is faulty.  Result?  Together with professors from Fayetteville State University and the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), Professor Robinson argues that North Carolina should halt executing people for crimes.  

Next Step:  North Carolina Legislatures Must Consider the Robinson Report

Those seeking to abolish the death penalty in North Carolina are hoping that this new research study will be powerful enough to exert influence over the legislators that are currently dealing with a number of proposals dealing with capital punishment in their state

Among them:  a bill that seeks to repeal the state’s Racial Justice Act, which currently provides an avenue for death row inmates to challenge their sentences by presenting post-conviction evidence of racial bias.  

[Note:  As of the initial publication of this post, we were not able to locate the full text of this report.  Upon discovery of the full text of this new death penalty study online, we’ll add the link here for your convenience.]