Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Name(Required)
Email(Required)
Address(Required)
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

NC Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty

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

  • Who We Are
    • Mission & History
    • Our Values
    • People Most Proximate
    • Coalition Members
    • Staff, Board, & Advisory Council
    • Our Funders
  • What We Do
  • Why End the Death Penalty?
    • Column 1
      • Racism
      • Innocence
      • Intellectual Disability & Mental Illness
    • Column 2
      • Public Safety
      • High Cost of Death
      • Waning Support
    • Column 3
      • Lethal Injection
      • Antiquated Sentences
      • Unfair Trials
  • Events
  • Blog
  • Commutations Campaign
  • Get Involved
  • Donate

Search NC Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty

Wake County

In life-and-death cases, the jury box must be open to all — not just those most prone to convict

Aug 24, 2022
We already know from our experience with the Racial Justice Act how prosecutors work to keep juries in capital cases overwhelmingly white, using the tool of peremptory strikes. Now, new […]

In life-and-death cases, the jury box must be open to all — not just those most prone to convict

August 24, 2022 · Kristin Collins

We already know from our experience with the Racial Justice Act how prosecutors work to keep juries in capital cases overwhelmingly white, using the tool of peremptory strikes. Now, new […]

Filed Under: Blog, Racial Bias, Racial Justice Act, Wake County

Wake DA Lorrin Freeman must remember: She holds people’s lives in her hands

Mar 8, 2022
A new story by Jeffrey Billman in The Assembly has done a huge public service: It’s given us a much fuller picture of one of North Carolina’s most powerful district […]

Wake DA Lorrin Freeman must remember: She holds people’s lives in her hands

March 8, 2022 · Kristin Collins

A new story by Jeffrey Billman in The Assembly has done a huge public service: It’s given us a much fuller picture of one of North Carolina’s most powerful district […]

Filed Under: Wake County

Wake County wanted the death penalty for a man with severe mental illness; only a pandemic stopped it

May 11, 2021
A bipartisan group of North Carolina legislators introduced a bill this week to prohibit the death penalty for people with severe mental illness. Here's a recent case that illustrates why this law is so needed: Wake County prosecutors knew that Kendrick Gregory had severe mental illness when they decided to try him capitally. In the eight months before the crime, he’d been hospitalized at least 20 times for mental illness. He checked himself into emergency rooms over and over, reporting symptoms of psychosis. On some occasions, he said he heard voices telling him to hurt himself. In the five years that they sought to try him for the death penalty, his mental illness became only more apparent. It is both immoral and unconstitutional to execute people who cannot understand or regulate their actions. Yet, in North Carolina, it remains accepted practice to try people with severe mental illness for their lives.

Wake County wanted the death penalty for a man with severe mental illness; only a pandemic stopped it

May 11, 2021 · Kristin Collins

A bipartisan group of North Carolina legislators introduced a bill this week to prohibit the death penalty for people with severe mental illness. Here’s a recent case that illustrates why this law is so needed: Wake County prosecutors knew that Kendrick Gregory had severe mental illness when they decided to try him capitally. In the eight months before the crime, he’d been hospitalized at least 20 times for mental illness. He checked himself into emergency rooms over and over, reporting symptoms of psychosis. On some occasions, he said he heard voices telling him to hurt himself. In the five years that they sought to try him for the death penalty, his mental illness became only more apparent. It is both immoral and unconstitutional to execute people who cannot understand or regulate their actions. Yet, in North Carolina, it remains accepted practice to try people with severe mental illness for their lives.

Filed Under: Latest News, Mental Illness, Wake County

Wake County Justice Center building

This keeps happening: Wake jury rejects death penalty for 9th time in a row

Jan 24, 2018
It’s starting to feel like Groundhog Day in Wake County. Every year begins with a capital trial, and every year, the jury chooses life. Wake is the only county in the state where a defendant has been tried capitally every year for the past three years. We're hoping that, next year, we can skip this annual ritual.

This keeps happening: Wake jury rejects death penalty for 9th time in a row

January 24, 2018 · Kristin Collins

Wake County Justice Center building
Wake County Justice Center building

It’s starting to feel like Groundhog Day in Wake County. Every year begins with a capital trial, and every year, the jury chooses life. Wake is the only county in the state where a defendant has been tried capitally every year for the past three years. We’re hoping that, next year, we can skip this annual ritual.

Filed Under: Declining Support, Declining Use, Latest News, Wake County

Footer

Contact

NCCADP Alternate Logo
NCCADP
3326 Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd.
Building D, Suite 201
Durham, NC 27707
noel@nccadp.org
919-404-7409

Follow Us on Instagram

On this Juneteenth we invite you to learn about an On this Juneteenth we invite you to learn about and advocate for #EndTheException, a campaign of @worthrises, to pass the Abolition Amendment. 

People who are incarcerated and detained across our country are disproportioately Black and Brown and forced to work for pennies an hour to no pay at all under the threat of additional punitive measures, such as the loss of family visits and solitary confinement.
Ten years ago today, nine Black worshippers were m Ten years ago today, nine Black worshippers were murdered during a Bible study at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Ten years. A measure of time that cannot touch the grief or honor the grace of those left behind.

We remember the names of those whose lives were taken: Cynthia Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Rev. Clementa Pickney, Tywanza Sanders, Rev. Daniel Simmons, Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, and Myra Thompson.

Among those grieving is our friend and fierce partner in this work, Rev. Sharon Risher, who lost family and friends on that day. In the decade since, Rev. Risher has spoken the unspeakable aloud on stages, in sanctuaries, and on pages inked with her truth. Her book, For Such a Time as This: Hope and Forgiveness after the Charleston Massacre, does not simplify the complexity of grief or forgiveness. Instead, she invites us to hold them both, trembling, in our hands.

Last year, Rev. Risher joined us in North Carolina and offered a living example of how to walk through fire and still find language for love. She continues to teach us what it means to mourn collectively, to resist hate, to believe that justice without compassion is incomplete. Rev. Risher is a powerful advocate for gun violence prevention and abolishing the death penalty.

This piece from USA Today traces what ten years have – and haven’t – changed (link also in bio): https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/06/16/charleston-black-church-emanuel-massacre-anniversary/84186073007/?fbclid

Today we honor the lives lost, the families forever changed, and the communities that carry their memory. And we give thanks for people like Rev. Risher, who show us again and again that remembrance is a sacred act and love is a kind of protest too.

(Photos of Rev. Risher speaking at last year’s NCCADP commemoration of 18 years since North Carolina’s last execution.)
🏳️‍🌈 This Pride Month (and always), we'r 🏳️‍🌈 This Pride Month (and always), we're telling it like it is: the death penalty targets LGBTQ+ people.

In courtrooms, LGBTQ+ identity can be twisted into a weapon and used against defendants. In prisons, gender identity is ignored and essential care denied.

Swipe through to learn more and read our full blog post to see how these issues show up in North Carolina and why there is no justice in a system that punishes people for who they are. Then join us in building a future rooted in dignity, humanity, equity, and life.

📖 Link in bio to read.

#PrideMonth #LGBTQJustice #EndTheDeathPenalty #NCCADP #TransRights #JusticeForAll #NoMoreDeathRow #AbolitionNow
Follow on Instagram

Stay Connected

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2025 · NC Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty · All Rights Reserved · Website by Tomatillo Design