N.C. Execution Schedule

Although we expect several more executions in North Carolina this year, there were no executions officially scheduled as of March 20, 2001.  Dates are announced 30-60 days before the execution is carried out.

-Robert Bacon: execution scheduled for 5/18/01 (see below)
-Larry D. Williams: execution scheduled for 4/27/01
-Willie Fisher: executed 3/9/01
-Ernest McCarver: execution stayed by US Supreme Court (3/01/01)
-Bobby Lee Harris: execution stayed by NC Supreme Court(1/18/01)
-Russell Tucker: execution stayed by NC Supreme Court (11/28/00)
-Marcus Carter: sentence commuted to life without parole (11/21/00)
-Michael Sexton: executed (11/9/00)

Racism in the Death Penalty Prosecution of Robert Bacon, Jr.

Execution date:
2 a.m. May 18, 2001

     Robert Bacon, Jr., was sentenced to die for the killing of his girlfriend's estranged husband, Glennie Clark.  Bonnie Clark was also convicted of first degree murder, but she was sentenced to life imprisonment.  Bacon is African-American; Bonnie and Glennie were both white.  Just before the stabbing, Glennie Clark called Bacon a "nigger."  From beginning to end, racial bias tainted nearly every aspect of this prosecution.

African-Americans Were Systematically Excluded from the Jury
     -Bacon was convicted and sentenced to death by an all-white jury in 1987.  The N.C. Supreme Court

threw out the death sentence and ordered a new sentencing hearing.  Bacon was resentenced to death by an all-white jury in 1991.
     -The population of Onslow County is approximately 20 percent African-American.
     -Before Bacon's 1987 trial, trial counsel filed a motion to prohibit the prosecutor from dismissing African-American jurors.  Bacon's attorneys argued in their motion that the District Attorney had shown "a pattern of discrimination against black jurors" by excusing them in death penalty cases.  The trial judge denied the motion.
     -Forty-two citizens were called and questioned for jury service in the 1987 trial.  Of these, only four were African-American.  The trial judge found two of these were not qualified to serve and dismissed them.  The State dismissed the other two.
     -During jury selection in Bacon's 1991 resentencing hearing, 48 jurors were called and questioned.  Of these, only two were not white: an African-American man and a Hispanic man.  The State dismissed both men of color.
     -The last three African-American executed in North Carolina were sentenced to death by all-white or nearly all-white juries: only two of 36 jurors were African-American.

Racial Bias Infected Jury Deliberations

     At trial and in the resentencing hearing deliberations, jurors improperly considered race.  At trial, jurors made racial jokes.  Jurors from Bacon's resentencing hearing admitted that when they were deciding punishment they held it against Bacon that he was romantically involved with a white woman.

Racial Bias is Demonstrated by the Disparate Punishment of Bacon's Codefendant
     Numerous studies have shown that the likelihood of being sentenced to death is much greater if the victim is white.  Black defendants accused of killing white people have the highest chance of receiving the death penalty. 
     In this case, Bonnie Clark hatched the plot to kill her husband; she dominated Bacon and manipulated him into committing the killing.  Yet, Bonnie Clark received a life sentence.

This information was compiled by Bacon's legal defense team.