The Racial Justice Act (RJA) was amended in 2009 to allow inmates on death row in North Carolina to be re-sentenced to life without parole if they could prove that their race played a significant part in the jurisdiction of their death sentence. Despite the law passing, it was later repealed in 2013 when the Supreme Court said there were procedural errors in the legal and legislative proceedings.

In 2012, a year before the RJA was repealed, four men on death row were re-sentenced to life without parole under the amended law. Since its repeal, they were placed back on death row.

Over the course of the last seven years, these four men, more than just caseloads on a desk that needs to be dusted, have been moved back and forth from facing judges, filing claims, and being placed back into death row.

However, last Friday, six of the seven justices on the North Carolina Supreme Court made a decision to repass the RJA. Accordingly, they also ruled it unconstitutional for the four inmates to be put back on death row following its 2013 repeal. 

Cassandra Stubbs, director of the ACLU tweeted news of the decision on June 5.

In an interview with TIME, Stubbs also pointed to the time of the decision as “incredibly poignant” given the recent uprisings around George Floyd’s murder.  

“The death penalty, as we all know, is affected by racial bias... ensures we will be able to continue our journey as North Carolinians to really confront the legacy of race in capital trials,” she said.

This legislation ruled by the Supreme Court on Friday is once again a step in the right direction for the everlong fight of criminal justice reform. However, with a government that is systematically racist, only time will tell if it is true change, or if it is just for the headlines.