Commutations Campaign

With just months to go in Gov. Cooper’s term, calls are intensifying for him to commute death sentences before he leaves office. On Sunday, Aug. 18 at 3:30, the NC Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty will host a public event featuring nationally known gun violence activist Rev. Sharon Risher, who lost three family members in the Charleston church massacre, and culminating at the gates of the Governor’s Mansion. On Monday, Aug. 19, billboards will go up in locations around downtown Raleigh with the message: Dear Gov. Cooper, Time’s running out! End death row.

On December 2, we once again had hundreds of people in the streets of Raleigh rallying for justice and compassion and telling Gov. Cooper: No more death row in North Carolina! But this time around, our message was more urgent than ever. 

You see, Gov. Cooper is beginning the last year of his term. Now is the time for him to take bold action to ensure that racist death sentences are never carried out in our state!

We recently got exciting confirmation that our call for Gov. Cooper to commute all of NC’s death sentences is being heard not just in the streets of Raleigh but across […]

In honor of World Day Against the Death Penalty on October 10, NCCADP released a letter signed by nearly 1,500 people of faith in NC, all of whom stand with our movement to ensure that no more executions are carried out in our state. They stand beside nearly 350 faith leaders who support commutations.

On August 19, our coalition once again came together to create a future without executions. About 200 people gathered at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh to remember the 43 people executed under North Carolina’s modern death penalty. Afterward, we marched to Central Prison, which houses the nation’s fifth largest death row, to demand that it be dismantled. We carried signs bearing the names of the executed.

After we released our letter from faith leaders to Gov. Cooper in April, asking him to commute the sentences of all 137 people on North Carolina’s death row, we heard from many lay people who wanted to add their names. In June, we launched a new letter inviting all people of faith in North Carolina to sign on. The letter was released during NCCADP’s Abolition Sabbath Weekend, five days of prayerful reflection and education about the death penalty.

Are you part of a religious or spiritual community and/ or do you consider yourself a person of faith who lives in North Carolina? In a state where nearly 80 percent of people identify with a faith tradition, including Governor Cooper, people of faith can be powerful voices for justice. We encourage you to add your name to this letter asking the governor to commute all death sentences to prison terms.

Originally published in the Charlotte Observer By Rev. Sharon Risher I know what it means to have my faith tested. Eight years ago this week, I was a hospital chaplain […]