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RALEIGH — A key witness for the state cast doubt on research that is central to a Cumberland County Racial Justice Act hearing on Thursday.

Convicted killer Marcus Robinson is trying to convince a judge that racial bias affected his murder trial in 1994. His lawyers have focused on research that says prosecutors were twice as likely to excuse a black juror from a capitol murder trial than a white juror.

Dr. Joseph Katz of Georgia said the research in that study only reviewed about a quarter of the capital murder trials over the last 20 years in North Carolina. Katz said researchers only looked at trials that resulted in the death sentence.

"My main concern was, it wasn't a random sample, as opposed to if the eligible population were of all capitol trials,” said Katz.

Marcus Robinson was sentenced to death for killing 17-year-old Erik Tornblom. Robinson is hoping Judge Greg Weeks will find that racial bias impacted his trial and commute his sentence to life in prison.

The state plans to call more prosecutors to explain their reasons for excusing jurors in murder trials. Other judges may also be called to testify.