Marcus Robinson (prisoner)

Marcus Robinson (born April 2, 1973) is an African-American convicted murderer who was sentenced to death by the state of North Carolina for a murder he committed in 1991. In April 2012, he successfully appealed against the death sentence under North Carolina's 2009 Racial Justice Act which allows for a prisoner under sentence of death to appeal for the sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment if racism is proven to be a factor in the original trial. North Carolina Superior Court judge Gregory Weeks found that the Act was applicable in Robinson's case after his lawyers cited a study from Michigan State University indicating that qualified black jurors were systemically excluded from jury service, both generally in North Carolina and at Robinson's trial. Consequently Weeks ordered his removal from death row. Robinson was the first death row inmate to use the legislation.