Liberal group criticizes N. Carolina Democratic AG

RALEIGH, N.C. — An organization committed to ending mass incarceration in North Carolina and demanding racial equity in criminal justice called out Attorney General Josh Stein on Tuesday, saying his office has fallen short in protecting civil rights. The panel offered more than 100 recommendations on how to eliminating racial inequities in policing, legal procedures and prison time and declared the “criminal justice system is afflicted with longstanding systemic racism.” But Emancipate NC leaders accused Stein of spending most of his first four years in office lying low on such issues. “He either remained silent or, worse, was on the wrong side of some of the most critical civil rights and criminal justice issues facing North Carolina,” the Emancipate NC letter reads adding that state residents “cannot afford to have their Attorney General sit on the sidelines, or worse, be on the wrong side, of these issues for the next four years.” Emancipate NC acknowledged that Stein has acted on principle at times, such as when he refused to defend a voter ID law that was challenged in court. There’s distress among civil rights lawyers “that we have to fight with an attorney general who has positioned himself as the candidate of racial justice on issues like race discrimination in jury selection in the death penalty,” Emancipate NC attorney Ian Mance said at the news conference.