The North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty is a statewide coalition of member organizations and individuals committed to ending the death penalty and creating a new vision of justice. We are dedicated to broad criminal legal reform rooted in restorative justice. We work with and educate lawmakers, communities, and the public about the racist, unjust and ineffectual death penalty system. Read more.
NC Death Penalty
by the Numbers
- 136 people on death row.
- 60% are people of color.
- Nearly half were sentenced by overwhelmingly white juries.
- 2 times more likely to be sentenced to death if victim of the murder is white.
- 12 innocent people exonerated.
- 11 exonerees are people of color.
- 43 people executed since 1976.
- 2006: the last year someone was executed.
- 2023: the last year someone was sentenced to death.
- 17 capital trials are scheduled for 2024.
- $2.16 million average additional cost for each case resulting in execution vs. sentenced to life in prison.
From the Blog
Time’s Running Out: Commute Death Row!
On August 18, we gathered in downtown Raleigh to mark 18 years since the last execution in our state and to tell the one person who can make sure executions do not resume, Governor Roy Cooper, “Time’s Running Out: Commute Death Row!” Governor Cooper’s term ends in only a few months and he must act to commute death row soon, before it is too late. We began at Church on Morgan in downtown Raleigh before taking our call for commutations directly to the Governor’s Mansion. It was very inspiring to see everyone in such a beautiful space on a sunny Sunday afternoon!
📬 Postcards and Letters Sent to Governor Cooper So Far!
People Most Proximate
“We cannot create justice without getting close to places where injustices prevail. We have to get proximate.”
—Bryan Stevenson
We have much to learn from the voices of those directly affected by the death penalty: People who’ve lost loved ones to murder, people on and exonerated from death row and their families, and people who’ve suffered the grief of execution. Their leadership is key to ending the death penalty. Here, you can read their stories and see the art they’ve created as they journey to find healing after losing a loved one, to go on living under a sentence of death, and to discover a more expansive meaning for the word “justice.”
