After an intense three-month campaign for the votes of North Carolina's House members, players in the health care debate including business, labor and the administration are now likely to focus their full attention on Sen. Kay Hagan. (N&O)

The state's new Racial Justice Act, which allows capital defendants or death row inmates to challenge the death penalty if race played a part in its application, has little traction. Judges have been ignoring requests of defendants to delay murder trials so they can file a challenge under the law. (N&O)

The state intends to finish the remaining five miles of Charlotte's Interstate 485 loop years ahead of schedule, Gov. Bev Perdue announced. To pay for it, the state will ask the contractor to pay for the work and get reimbursed later. (Char-O)

State Rep. Bill Owens says the recent legislative session was the most difficult of his career.

Owens, an Elizabeth City Democrat, spoke to his hometown Rotary Club this week about the recently completed legislative session, according to a report in the Daily Advance.

He told the meeting that the state still needs to sort out who should be in charge of public schools, defended the Racial Justice Act, and said negotiations over the state budget made for a difficult session.

"This has been by far the most trying time I've ever had in my career," Owens said.

Hat Tip: The Insider.

Gov. Beverly Perdue signed into law this morning the Racial Justice Act, saying it will make sure that the death penalty in North Carolina will be "based on the facts and the law, not racial prejudice."

The act allows Death Row inmates and people charged with capital crimes to argue before a judge that race was a significant factor in the imposition of the death sentence. If the judge agrees, the death sentence can be overturned to life in prison without parole.

Perdue, a Democrat, said in signing the bill that she is a supporter of the death penalty. But she said "it must be carried out fairly."

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: House and Senate Democrats adopted a $19 billion state budget. Only a few were willing to admit they were happy about the spending plan. The state's teacher lobby claimed a victory because it figured it could convince all of the state's school districts to keep all teacher jobs intact. Republicans were probably just a little happy that Democrats approved a $990 million tax increase (Can anyone say "Campaign issue?") North Carolina was probably happy to leave Connecticut and Pennsylvania as the only two states who haven't yet adopted a budget.

BABY PICTURES: John Edwards' ex-mistress, Rielle Hunter, had a family photo shoot scheduled in Raleigh on Thursday. Technically, it was a grand jury appearance, but Hunter brought her child along presumably because she couldn't find a sitter. The baby's father, whoever that may be, must not have been available.

GET OUT OF HERE: The Senate decided it had enough this week. The House wasn't ready to call it a session. In the last full week of legislating, lawmakers took key votes on a death penalty bill, a ban on a hallucinogenic herb and the Beach Plan.

Convicted felons will be allowed to challenge their death sentences on grounds of racial bias according to a law that passed the Senate on Wednesday night.

The N.C. Racial Justice Act, which passed by a vote of 25-18, would allow defendants to challenge death sentences using statistical evidence that shows that race was a factor in imposition of the death penalty at a local or state level. The bill still requires the governor's approval.

"The need for this bill is self evident to prevent any type of conduct that would be impermissible when it comes to the imposition of the death penalty," said Sen. Floyd McKissick, a Durham Democrat an the bill's sponsor.

When the bill originally passed the Senate, it did so with amendments that would end a de facto moratorium on executions created when physicians refused to participate. The House removed those provisions when it passed its version of the bill.

Opponents of the bill said it will end the imposition of the death penalty in North Carolina.

"Concurring in the House version of this bill is a vote to say we should not have a death penalty in North Carolina," said Sen. Phil Berger, the chamber's Republican leader.

'DEADLINE' IS A STRONG TERM: The House and Senate missed their July 15 deadline to adopt a budget. So, proving that it's good to be the ones who make the laws, they gave themselves more time. Meanwhile, the state court system, unsure over whether it can make payroll next month, sure would like to see a budget.

BILLS, BILLS, BILLS: There's no budget yet, but that doesn't mean the House and Senate aren't working. Key votes came this week on bills to shore up the Beach Plan, to allow challenges of racism to death sentences and to stop requiring sexual assault victims to pay for rape kit exams.

SOFT ON CRIME?: Judges were in giving moods this week. First U.S. District Judge W. Earl Britt released Sam Currin, a former judge, federal prosecutor and state Republican Party chairman, who had served a fraction of his sentence for money laundering and obstruction. Then Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens decided that former House Speaker Jim Black can serve his state time concurrently with his federal prison sentence.

IN OTHER NEWS: Attorney General Roy Cooper says he will work to get money that was diverted away from crime victims. Unemployment in North Carolina has hit African Americans especially hard. Attorney and Senate hopeful Kenneth Lewis has hired Joe Trippi, who ran John Edwards last presidential campaign to help with fundraising.

The House voted in favor of a bill that would allow death row inmates to challenge their sentence as racially motivated.

Opponents criticized the bill saying it would allow a flood of unnecessary and frivolous challenges from every inmate.

"We're fixing to put another road block in the path of those who believe in capital punishment," said Rep. Leo Daughtry, a Johnston County Republican.

Supporters say the bill is necessary to ensure that the penalty is carried out fairly. Rep. Grier Martin, a Raleigh Democrat, said support for the bill and support for capital punishment are not contradictory because both are about justice.

"It is not a paradox," Martin said. "In fact it is entirely consistent with that same sense of justice."

The bill now returns to the Senate.

Judges would be allowed to consider whether racial bias played a role in the decision to seek or impose the death penalty, according to a bill on which the N.C. House voted Tuesday evening after a long and emotionally charged debate.

"This is a fairness bill," said Rep. Larry Womble, the Winston-Salem Democrat who helped champion the bill. "If we're going to kill people, we must be as fair and objective as we can. This allows one more chance for justice to be blind. ... It's not a get-out-of-jail free card for anybody."

Democrats cited studies showing blacks are far more likely to be sentenced to death in North Carolina than whites. Further, a defendant is 3.5 times more likely to face the death penalty when the victim is white than when the victim is black.

Republicans strongly oppose the measure, saying its passage will clog the courts with frivolous appeals, cost millions and impose a de facto moratorium on executions.

"This bill is not really about race," said Rep. Paul Stam of Wake County, the minority leader. "It's about the death penalty."

The N.C. Racial Justice Act passed its second reading in the House 61-55, with every Republican and four Democrats voting no.

A final House vote could come today, and the bill would then return to the Senate, where it may have a difficult time gaining approval and may require a compromise. That's because the House version left out a section of the Senate bill designed to help remove obstacles that have effectively halted executions for two years. Senate leaders said that provision must be included for the Racial Justice Act to pass that chamber. (N&O)

The Racial Justice Act, which would allow challenges to death sentences based on race, narrowly cleared a House committee this morning.

The act would require defendants to prove that race played a “significant factor” in a prosecutor’s decision to seek the death penalty, or in a jury vote to impose the sentence, reports April Bethea of The Charlotte Observer. It allows the use of statistics to show, among other things, that the death sentence was sought or imposed more frequently for persons of one race versus others.

Defendents can challenge the use of the death penalty either in a pre-trial conference or after conviction. Current death row inmates would have up to one year after the bill goes into effect to challenge their sentences.

A successful challenge would keep a prosecutor from seeking the death penalty, or would vacant a death sentence in exchange for life in prison without parole.

More after the jump.

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The National NAACP wants the legislature to pass a bill that would let people facing the death penalty argue that race was a significant factor in prosecutors' decision to seek the death penalty or in juries' voting to impose it.

The bill, known as the Racial Justice Act, is being pushed by the state NAACP and other groups, Lynn Bonner reports.

The bill passed the Senate with a provision the death-penalty opponents don't want, one that aims to restart executions after a de facto moratorium of more than two years.

The National NAACP set up an easy way for supporters to send e-mail messages to House Speaker Joe Hackney and Senate leader Marc Basnight asking them to get the bill passed without the Senate addition.