NC Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty

Committed to ending the death penalty and creating a new vision of justice

Statement: 20 Years Without Executions

More than 100 organizations and faith and community leaders across North Carolina signed this statement in recognition of 20 years since the state’s last execution, calling on North Carolina officials to move permanently beyond the death penalty.

Statement

August marks 20 years since North Carolina last executed anyone. During those two decades, violent crime has dropped, and five innocent people have been exonerated from death row — proof we are better off without the death penalty. As we close out this month, the undersigned organizations and individuals are calling for there to be no more executions in this state.

Samuel Flippen was the last person to be executed in North Carolina on Aug. 18, 2006. He was the 43rd person to be put to death under the state’s modern death penalty. What began as a pause has held for two decades and five governors from both parties, long enough to expose how deeply flawed our death penalty system is and how executions were never what protected our communities. What it has shown is that a different vision of justice is possible in North Carolina.

While the anniversary is worth marking, it is not the end of the story. The death penalty remains on the books in North Carolina, and its harms are still active. Today, 122 people sit on death row, and capital trials continue with six scheduled for the remainder of the year. Yet, the same racist patterns that have defined our state’s death penalty for decades persist. Nearly 60% of the people on death row are people of color, and someone is twice as likely to be sentenced to death if their victim was white — reinforced by the fact that Black jurors are often excluded from capital trials to begin with. Since 1976, 12 innocent people sentenced to death in North Carolina have been exonerated, 11 of whom are people of color.

Now, North Carolina politicians have taken new steps that make the resumption of executions a real risk. HB 307, signed last October, expands possible execution methods and cuts short the timeline for death row appeals.

This 20-year hiatus proves ending this practice for good is possible. A system this prone to error and bias fails us all. We must not go backward. We call on North Carolina officials to move our state permanently beyond the death penalty.

Signatories

  • Rev. S. F. James Abbott, retired Episcopal priest
  • ACLU of North Carolina
  • Rev. Jane Almon
  • Amnesty International USA
  • Amnesty International USA Local Group 213 (Raleigh)
  • Rev. Amy Andrews, Pastor, Cedarbridge Baptist Church
  • Anna Banke, Director of Programs & Partnerships for Jubilee Home
  • Frank R. Baumgartner, Professor of Political Science, UNC-Chapel Hill
  • Rev. Diane Faires Beadle
  • Molly L. Beck, M.Div.
  • John Charles Boger, Emeritus Professor of Law
  • Rev. Kathy Randall Bryant, Pastor, Summerfield Peace UMC
  • Center for Death Penalty Litigation (CDPL)
  • Rev. Philip Cooper, Rural Health Equity Ambassador
  • The Rev. Dr. Jennifer Copeland, Executive Director North Carolina Council of Churches, retired
  • Rev David Crispell, Executive Director, Jubilee Home
  • Rev. Carol Sasser Dalton, Ministry of Hope prison chaplain, retired
  • Mark Daughtridge, chair, Justice Committee, Asbury UMC
  • Rev. Joyce Day, Retired UMC Clergy
  • Rev. Darryl Dayson
  • Rev. Rod Debs
  • Democracy North Carolina
  • Rev. Frank Dew, North Carolina Council of Churches, president of the Board
  • Deacon Kimberly Dunbar, NC Synod of the ELCA
  • El Pueblo
  • Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina
  • Forward Justice
  • Franciscan Justice Circle of NC
  • Franciscan Justice Circle of Winston Salem area
  • Fraternity of St. Clare ofs
  • Sally Freeman, former clerk Piedmont Friends Yearly Meeting
  • Keri Smith Gaylord, LCSW
  • Kelly Greene, Director of Member Relations
  • Kaaren Haldeman, PhD MPH
  • Rev. Ann Harrington, Free Spirit Inclusive Catholic Community North Carolina
  • Rev. Esther Hethcox
  • Hidden Voices
  • Rev. Sarah Howell
  • Matt Hughes, Commissioner, Town of Hillsborough
  • Emma Hylton, Deaconess
  • Mr. William Robert Ingram, co-founder of the Richmond County Coalition for Justice and Black Empowerment
  • Amy Jackson, Prison Ministry Convenor
  • Rev. Tommy James, First Baptist Burnsville
  • Nancy J Jones, Catholics for Abolition in North Carolina
  • Jubilee Home
  • Paul Klever, former Clerk, Eno Friends Meeting of Hillsborough
  • Joshua Klickman, Deacon
  • Kathy Krahenbuhl, First Presbyterian, Durham, NC
  • Rev. Caitlin Lai
  • The Rev. Dr. Rhonda Mawhood Lee
  • Desiree Lucas, Social Worker and Minister
  • Rev. Stacey Lundy
  • Rev. Dustin M. Mailman, Founding Pastor of Deep Time
  • Rev. Joe Mann, Retired United Methodist Elder, Edenton Street UMC, Raleigh
  • Jim McCoy, retired minister and prison chaplain
  • Rev. Robert E. McKeown, PhD
  • Brenda Messera, Micah Connection, Matthews United Methodist Church
  • Graig Meyer
  • Paris Miller-Foushee, Chapel Hill Town Council-member
  • Erin Parish Mitchell, Executive Director, Human Kindness Foundation
  • Joseph Moran, Retired, M.Th. & M.A. in Religious Ed.
  • Rev. Jeremy Morris
  • Rev. Dr. Marcia W. Mount Shoop, Pastor, Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, Asheville
  • Rev. Veronica Murphy
  • NAACP North Carolina State Conference
  • National Black Worker Center
  • Noel Nickle, Executive Director, NC Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
  • North Carolina Conservatives Concerned
  • North Carolina Justice Center
  • Wendy Padilla, Orange County Board of Education
  • Rev. Megan M. Pardue, Refuge Home Church UCC
  • John Parker, NC Council of Churches
  • Nathan Parrish, Pastor
  • The Rev Christine Payden-Travers, retired Episcopal priest
  • Peace, Earth, and Justice Action Committee, Asheville Friends Meeting (Quakers)
  • Kenneth Pittman Jr., Director of Operations, Recidivism, Reduction, Educational Programs Services (RREPS)
  • Jon Powell, Director Restorative Justice Clinic
  • Rep. Renée A. Price, H-50
  • Julian Ramirez, Rev. Deacon
  • REDRESSNC
  • Religious Coalition for a Nonviolent Durham
  • Rev. Sharon Risher, Author and Speaker, former Death Penalty Action Board Chair
  • Marcia Saltz, Tutor/Mentor
  • Rev. Miriam Saxon, retired Episcopal priest
  • Rev. Fran Spier Saylor
  • Second Chance Federation
  • Rev Joel Simpson
  • Sisters of Mercy in North Carolina
  • Megan Smith, Survivor Family Engagement Group of NCCADP
  • Southern Coalition for Social Justice
  • El Stewart, community organizer
  • Carolyn Stuart, former clerk of Chapel Hill Friends Meeting
  • Mary Ann Tally, Superior Court Judge, District 12C, retired
  • Jennifer Thompson, Author, Restorative Justice Expert, Former Commissioner on the NC Innocence Inquiry Commission
  • Fr. Gonzalo de Jesus Torres-Acosta, OFM, Catholic Priest
  • Rev. Dr. Tirzah Turner, Community Pastor, Crosspointe Church
  • Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry of North Carolina
  • Hope Morgan Ward, Retired Bishop
  • Rev. Sara Wilcox, Land of the Sky United Church of Christ, Asheville
  • Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Baptist minister
  • Leah Wilson-Hartgrove, Restorative Justice Durham
  • Rev. Deacon Kate Wisz
  • Women Leading 4 Wellness and Justice
  • YAP! (Young Americans Protest)
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