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RALEIGH - N.C. lawmakers paid attention to public safety, education and economic development during the General Assembly’s short session.

Legislators tried to strike a balance between interdiction and punishment in passing anti-gang bills.  Gov. Mike Easley signed into law the North Carolina Street Gang Prevention And Intervention Act, which requires the state Advisory Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to develop intervention programs for at-risk juveniles and make recommendations to reduce activity.

The legislation was sponsored by Sen. Malcolm Graham of Charlotte as a response to growing gang activity to the state. A House bill lays out penalties for defendants convicted of gang-related crimes and recruiting juveniles.

The Governor’s Crime Commission reports there are more than 550 gangs in the state with total membership of 15,000.  
The law requires the N.C. departments of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Crime Control and Public Safety, and Public Instruction to report to the General Assembly on school violence and gang activity.  

The Governor’s Crime Commission will also develop guidelines for eligibility for grants that include a 25 percent local match. The state will fund $31 million for anti-gang programs.

Easley also signed Jessica’s Law, which would keep sex offenders in prison longer and monitored for life. The law would also alert schools and day care operators when sexual predators move nearby and banned sex offenders from social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace.

The legislature also  addressed publicly-funded education by increasing the state’s share of funding by $150 over last year and giving teachers a 3 percent raise. The  More at Four pre-kindergarten program  got $175 million and another $15 million went to dropout prevention grants to keep students in school.

Public universities also got $500 million in building projects. An estimated economic impact of $1.8 billion and 29,000 jobs could develop from the UNC system program.

The Racial Justice Act, passed by the House of Representatives in 2007, still hasn’t passed the Senate. The bill would forbid executions if a court finds race is a significant factor in the decision to seek the death penalty. Attorneys would be allowed to submit evidence that racial bias was evident, including statistics.

“It is deeply troubling to hear that efforts are being made to slow down and dismantle the Racial Justice Act,” said the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, in a July e-mail. “Rumors abound that persons are worried about the politics of the bill and whether or not their ultra-conservative opponents will use their vote as a sign that they are soft on crime. This is appalling. We are not talking about one’s personal political philosophy about how to prevent and deter crime. We are talking about how to deter racism in the criminal justice system in the application of the death penalty.”

A 2001 study of the death penalty in N.C. shows the odds of receiving the death sentence rose 3.5 times among defendants whose victims were white.

“We know in our hearts that if three white or wealthy men held on death row for years had been released in the past few months when it was found their convictions and sentences were deeply flawed, the entire legislature would be in an uproar to change,” Barber writes in the e-mail. “Playing politics with this bill is pandering to racism.”

Senator Floyd McKissick, D-Durham, who is part of the informal work group, disagrees.

“I don’t think it’s in jeopardy. It’s being worked on,” he  said.

Sommer Brokaw of The Triangle Tribune contributed.

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