O’Brien and Grosso found that of the 159 inmates now on death row in North Carolina, 31 were sentenced by all-white juries, 38 had only one minority in their sentencing juries and a defendant is 2.6 times more likely to get the death penalty if the victim is white.

The Racial Justice Act is allows current death row inmates or people who are potentially facing a death sentence to challenge their conviction if they can show that race played a part in either the decision to seek the death penalty against them, a jury’s decision to impose the death penalty or that race played a part in the selection of juries, O’Brien said.

“What sets it apart, because that isn’t supposed to happen anyway, is that it lets defendants use statistical evidence to show discrimination.”

Since the act was passed, more than 100 inmates have appealed their sentences citing racial bias, said Malcolm Hunter, the executive director of Center for Death Penalty Litigation Inc., in Durham, North Carolina.

“I think it’s going to be very important that North Carolina looks at the impact of race on capital punishment over the next several years,” Hunter said. “(The study) was very good work, very important work and we are very grateful.”

If those who appealed their sentences experienced racial bias during their cases, the entire court system could need to be corrected, said Richard Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

“This is a broader problem for the country,” Dieter said. “I think that North Carolina legislation in court review is an example of what other states need to do as well.”

In past cases, it was difficult to prove a defendant was sentenced by a biased jury, but now there is statistical research to prove that it could be occurring, Dieter said.

“A defendant always has the right to say, ‘I was discriminated against, and the prosecutor picked me out, I was black or I had a white victim,’” he said.

The Racial Justice Act enables those facing the death penalty to investigate patterns of discrimination in their convictions.

“It’s as if IBM only hired two minorities a year and you go in and say, ‘I can’t prove that they didn’t hire me because I am a minority, but I can tell you that they have the pattern of not doing this,’” Dieter said.

Although Grosso and O’Brien were unable to comment on the impact of the research due to pending litigation, O’Brien said the two professors wanted to examine a correlation, if any, between race and death penalty sentences.

“We basically hope to distribute the body of knowledge that we have about the role of race in the criminal justice system,” O’Brien said.