Sen. Goolsby is a former Counsel to the State Crime Commission and co-chairs both the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Justice and Public Safety and the Appropriations on Justice and Public Safety committee. He has the experience to reduce crime and make New Hanover County a safer place to work and raise a family.
The Justice Reinvestment Act was a bi-partisan achievement of Sen. Goolsby’s first term. The UNC School of Government produced a helpful summary of this new law that combines three agencies into a single Department of Public Safety.
Sen. Goolsby spoke for district attorneys statewide in floor addresses advocating reform to the 2009 Racial Justice Act. Thanks to his leadership during senate debates, the Racial Justice Act no longer allows death-row inmates to appeal their sentences based solely on statistical evidence.
Sen. Goolsby defended the authority of district attorneys, judges and juries to deliver justice for victims’ families in these floor speeches. He further criticized Gov. Perdue for claiming to support the death penalty while preserving an indefinite legislative ban on its application.
Sen. Goolsby was a delegate at the historic “Siracusa Conference” in Sicily after the fall of the Soviet Union. As a guest of the United Nations and the Council of Europe he helped the former USSR and Central and Eastern European Republics reform their criminal codes. The rewrites established independence of the judiciary, the right to an impartial trial and a recognized ‘rule of law.’
