Johnston County judge finds death sentences influenced by racial discrimination: Court Documents
SMITHFIELD, N.C. (WNCN) — On Friday, a Johnston County judge found that race played a significant role in the death penalty trial of Hasson Bacote, influencing the makeup of the jury along with the decision of the death sentence.
Superior Court Judge Wayland Sermons also found that racial discrimination extends beyond Bacote's case 'poisoning all death sentences in Johnston County' and districts that include Harnett and Lee counties.
'We are grateful that Judge Sermons carefully weighed the evidence and found that the administration of the death penalty in Johnston County remains deeply entangled with racism,' said Gretchen M. Engel, executive director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, which along with the ACLU and the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund brought forward Mr. Bacote's Racial Justice Act claim. 'This decision is a damning indictment of the death penalty and should serve as a call for every North Carolina death sentence to be reexamined. North Carolina must never carry out another execution tainted by racial discrimination.'
The ruling comes after former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper's grant of clemency to 15 people on death row, including Bacote. Judge Sermons' decision however will not affect Bacote's sentence as he is already resentenced to life without parole.
PREVIOUS | Gov. Cooper commutes 15 death sentences on last day as North Carolina governor
The ruling is still significant to 121 people remaining on the state's death row because of the findings in Bacote's case.
'I am deeply grateful to my family, my lawyers, the experts, and to everyone who fought for justice—not just in my case, but for so many others,' Mr. Bacote said in a statement made through his attorneys. 'When my death sentence was commuted by Governor Cooper, I felt enormous relief that the burden of the death penalty — and all of the stress and anxiety that go with it — were lifted off my shoulders. I am grateful to the court for having the courage to recognize that racial bias affected my case and so many others.'
Sermons said that all evidence showed that Black people were denied a voice in the justice system and prosecutors often felt free to invoke racist tropes and slurs.
In Bacote's case, court documents state that 'the prosecution struck qualified Black potential jurors at 3.3 times the rate it struck all other qualified jurors.' Documents also stated that patterns of discrimination against Black venire members proved to be consistent.
Prosecutor Greg Butler also referred to Black defendants with terms including 'piece of trash' and 'predators of the African plain,' according to documents.
Cassandra Stubbs, the director of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project said that this case could lead to a significant impact on similar cases across North Carolina.
'We expect that there will be efforts from other defendants to bring their meritorious claims to justice, and I hope that the leadership in North Carolina finally sits down and wrestles with these facts. That we see a different way of selecting juries, that we can look at punishment differently, and that we finally try to take seriously the underlying goal of the RJA which is to try to stop race from playing a role in our criminal justice system,' Stubbs said.
Stubbs said that overall she is satisfied with the outcome and the judge's decision and could be a path forward for other death row inmates who faced discrimination to bring their claims forward.
'I'm thrilled on behalf of Mr. Bacote and that there is a court after 14 years that has lived up to the Racial Justice Act,' Stubbs said, 'The promise for the law was to allow for a reckoning and an examination in the ways in which racial bias taint our death penalty system, and today's decision does that.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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