Duke study on NC life in prison sentences finds a ‘white lives matter effect’
Lifetime prison sentences should be re-examined after a study found racial disparities among those sentenced to North Carolina’s harshest punishment short of death, Duke University legal experts say.
Sentences of life in prison without parole, the study stated, “reflect not national or state, but chiefly local preferences as well as preferences for severe sentences in cases with white victims, rather than a consistent response to crimes rates.”
“That such severe sentences can flow from local preferences raises constitutional, state law, but also policy concerns,” it concluded.
The Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law released the study Tuesday. It analyzed data by county for North Carolina life without parole sentences — the automatic sentence for murder when the death penalty is ruled out — that reached record highs over the past 25 years even as homicide rates declined.
The study found “a white lives matter effect” in that the most life sentences occurred in counties with more black defendants and more white victims of murder, said Brandon Garrett, one of the authors of the study and and director of the Wilson Center, during a virtual news conference on the study.
Fewer life sentences tend to occur as the number of black homicide victims in a county increases, the study found.
This race-of-victim effect is consistent with research on death sentences, which have declined significantly over the years, Garrett said.
“The findings have implications for efforts to reconsider the most severe sentences in the U.S.,” the study concluded. “And they suggest that prosecutorial discretion in seeking long sentences will be an important subject for future research and policy.”
Garrett said he hopes the study informs the N.C. Task Force for Racial Equity, which is compiling a list of recommendations to address discriminatory criminal justice practices to present to Gov. Roy Cooper on Dec. 1.
1,627 people sentenced to life in prison
The Duke study looked at 1,627 people serving life sentences imposed from 1995 to 2017.
Of those, 62% were Black, 30% were white and 8% were classified as other. About 76% of the state’s population are white and 13% are Black, according to U.S. Census population estimates.
Of those serving life sentences, 1,551 were convicted of first or second-degree murder. Sixty-four were convicted of violent habitual felonies, or people who had been convicted of two violent felonies.
“Life without parole is one of the most egregious forms of racial discrimination and inequality in our criminal justice system,” said Rep. Marcia Morey, a Durham Democrat and former district judge, during the news conference.
The report and related data should be used to change laws and administrative procedures to bring back a sense “of true justice,” to the system, Morey said.
History of LWOP
Before the 1970s, parole boards could release people sentenced to life in prison in most states, according to the study.
Life without parole emerged as an alternative to death sentences in the 1970s as legal challenges questioned the constitutionality of capital punishment.
In the 1990s, states moved to reject parole options and focus on retribution, leading to more life sentences, the study states.
In 1994, Congress mandated life without parole for people convicted of a federal offense if they had two prior offenses that resulted in state or federal convictions. Many states followed with life sentences for habitual offenders, the study states
Over the past 25 years, the number of people serving life sentences increased by 59% even as serious crimes, including murder, declined, the study states. More than 50,000 people are serving life sentences across the U.S.
Supporters of life sentences have said people who commit such crimes can’t be rehabilitated, but emerging science indicates that as people age they are less likely to commit crimes, the study states.
Structured sentencing
North Carolina adopted life without parole sentencing in 1994 when structured sentencing prescribed sentence ranges based on the crime, a defendant’s previous convictions and aggravating and mitigating factors.
The change sought to address a prison overcrowding crisis with a new model that would provide more consistency and help predict the system’s financial impact, according to a UNC School of Government blog post.
Under that system, adults convicted of murder would automatically be sentenced to life in prison or death.
At the same time, state laws broadened the definition of murder to include killings that occur during the attempted or commission of other crimes such as arson, robbery or other felonies that involved a weapon.
Prosecutors’ discretion allowed them to charge defendants with murder even if they weren’t directly responsible for a killing, experts said.
Lifetime sentence
Clive Hurst was one of those sentenced to life in prison under the expanded definition of murder.
When Hurst was 19, he was involved in a plan to rob a drug dealer, and the dealers’s live-in partner was shot and killed by another man who was never caught, said Hurst’s attorney, Ben Finholt, director of the Just Sentencing Project at N.C. Prisoner Legal Services.
The prosecutor told the jury in Hurst’s 1996 murder trial that Hurst knew what was going to take place when his accomplice picked him up with a machine gun, The News & Observer reported.
But Hurst’s then attorney argued the state built its murder case on taped testimony from a woman who had been found dead in New York and couldn’t be cross-examined.
Finholt said the woman also testified in another Durham case in which a man’s conviction was overturned.
Hurst is now 45 years old, after spending 24 years in prison.
“I think people view this as, ‘You go away. You did something awful. We can never have you in society again,” Finholt said. “ I think that that’s the wrong way to look at it. I think there are many people who are serving this incredibly draconian sentence for actions they did not directly commit.”
Other findings
The study also found that as homicides increase in a county, fewer people are sentenced to life. And life sentences are more likely to be imposed in rural counties.
It also found that prior use of life sentences in a county is an indicator of future sentencing patterns.
The pattern is created by prosecutors, amenable judges and jurors, and inadequate defense lawyers, according to the study.
This story was originally published October 27, 2020 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Duke study on NC life in prison sentences finds a ‘white lives matter effect’."
