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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
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    • Staff, Board, & Advisory Council
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  • 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
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Search NC Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty

Why We Care

Jimmy Morgan, smiling, in a checkered sweater and white collar

Resentenced to Life: Why justice matters, even for my guilty clients

Nov 14, 2018
Legally, there was a strong argument that even though Jimmy was guilty, he should never have been sentenced to death. The jury that sentenced him didn’t know that this impulsive crime was in part the product of several traumatic brain injuries, which began in childhood. If Jimmy were retried now, he would never receive a death sentence. No Buncombe jury has sentenced anyone to death since 2000.

Resentenced to Life: Why justice matters, even for my guilty clients

November 14, 2018 · Kristin Collins

Jimmy Morgan, smiling, in a checkered sweater and white collar
Jimmy Morgan, smiling, in a checkered sweater and white collar

Legally, there was a strong argument that even though Jimmy was guilty, he should never have been sentenced to death. The jury that sentenced him didn’t know that this impulsive crime was in part the product of several traumatic brain injuries, which began in childhood. If Jimmy were retried now, he would never receive a death sentence. No Buncombe jury has sentenced anyone to death since 2000.

Filed Under: Arbitrary Use, Guest Posts, Intellectual Disabilities, Latest News, Mental Disabilities, Why We Care

Attorney Elizabeth Hambourger and Blaize the Poet embrace after an emotional reading at Poetic Justice. They're both smiling and hugging, cheek to cheek.

Remaining human in the face of an inhumane death penalty system

Oct 3, 2018
It's hard to describe what it feels like to be a capital defense attorney. To be responsible for saving the lives of people who've committed terrible crimes, and sometimes, to be forced to watch them die. In this video, Elizabeth Hambourger, a staff attorney at the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, explains in moving and personal terms what it's like to do this most difficult of jobs.

Remaining human in the face of an inhumane death penalty system

October 3, 2018 · Kristin Collins

Attorney Elizabeth Hambourger and Blaize the Poet embrace after an emotional reading at Poetic Justice. They're both smiling and hugging, cheek to cheek.
Attorney Elizabeth Hambourger and Blaize the Poet embrace after an emotional reading at Poetic Justice. They're both smiling and hugging, cheek to cheek.

It’s hard to describe what it feels like to be a capital defense attorney. To be responsible for saving the lives of people who’ve committed terrible crimes, and sometimes, to be forced to watch them die. In this video, Elizabeth Hambourger, a staff attorney at the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, explains in moving and personal terms what it’s like to do this most difficult of jobs.

Filed Under: Latest News, Partner Spotlights, Why We Care

Henry McCollum death row exoneration

Jurors sent an innocent man to death row. Now they ask: “Where did we go wrong?”

Sep 6, 2018
One elderly woman sat with us in her living room, wearing a pink nightgown. “I should have followed my conscience,” she said, her hands shaking. “I hope he can forgive me.” It’s unclear if she’s seeking forgiveness from the innocent man she sent to death row, or God himself. Four years after Henry McCollum's exoneration, jurors are still wrestling with their role.

Jurors sent an innocent man to death row. Now they ask: “Where did we go wrong?”

September 6, 2018 · Kristin Collins

Henry McCollum death row exoneration
Henry McCollum death row exoneration

One elderly woman sat with us in her living room, wearing a pink nightgown. “I should have followed my conscience,” she said, her hands shaking. “I hope he can forgive me.” It’s unclear if she’s seeking forgiveness from the innocent man she sent to death row, or God himself. Four years after Henry McCollum’s exoneration, jurors are still wrestling with their role.

Filed Under: False Evidence, Innocence, Latest News, Why We Care

Center for Death Penalty Litigation attorney and executive director Gretchen Engel in her office, holding a large-scale painting of a Native American girl in blue dress with an owl perched near her shoulder.

An execution’s aftermath: “I watched him die 15 years ago, and I still talk to him sometimes”

Aug 22, 2018
On that terrible day, the worst moment was telling Quentin’s family that the governor had denied clemency, and that he would be killed in 90 minutes. His younger sister let out a howl that I can still hear now. She sounded like an animal dying in a trap. A social worker and I then went to give Quentin the news. When we told him, and started sobbing, he gathered us into his arms and comforted us. Quentin was so much more than the worst thing he’d done.

An execution’s aftermath: “I watched him die 15 years ago, and I still talk to him sometimes”

August 22, 2018 · Kristin Collins

Center for Death Penalty Litigation attorney and executive director Gretchen Engel in her office, holding a large-scale painting of a Native American girl in blue dress with an owl perched near her shoulder.
Center for Death Penalty Litigation attorney and executive director Gretchen Engel in her office, holding a large-scale painting of a Native American girl in blue dress with an owl perched near her shoulder.

On that terrible day, the worst moment was telling Quentin’s family that the governor had denied clemency, and that he would be killed in 90 minutes. His younger sister let out a howl that I can still hear now. She sounded like an animal dying in a trap. A social worker and I then went to give Quentin the news. When we told him, and started sobbing, he gathered us into his arms and comforted us. Quentin was so much more than the worst thing he’d done.

Filed Under: Guest Posts, Latest News, Stories from Death Row, Why We Care

A life condemned: Remembering my client who died on death row

Nov 14, 2017
My client, Terry Ball, slipped away with barely a mention after living on N.C. death row for almost 25 years. I believe his life is worth remembering, and that his story, like all my clients’ stories, hold keys to understanding the origins of crime and our shared humanity with people labeled the worst of the worst.

A life condemned: Remembering my client who died on death row

November 14, 2017 · Kristin Collins

My client, Terry Ball, slipped away with barely a mention after living on N.C. death row for almost 25 years. I believe his life is worth remembering, and that his story, like all my clients’ stories, hold keys to understanding the origins of crime and our shared humanity with people labeled the worst of the worst.

Filed Under: Guest Posts, Latest News, Stories from Death Row, Why We Care

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Contact

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

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19 years ago, North Carolina executed Samuel Flipp 19 years ago, North Carolina executed Samuel Flippen. He was the last person to be executed by the state. 

19 years without executions. Let's make it forever.

#NoMoreDeathRow #EndTheDeathPenalty #19YearsWithout
Florida has executed Michael Bell. This is the 26t Florida has executed Michael Bell. This is the 26th execution in the US in 2025, the highest number of executions in any year since 2015. And it’s only July. 

Michael Bell was the 8th person executed in Florida this year, tying the state’s annual murder record within the modern death penalty era. Governor DeSantis has signed yet another death warrant. Florida plans to execute Edward Zakrzewski on July 31. We are in uncharted territory. 

Yet public support for capital punishment is at an all-time low. We are facing a brutal final showdown with the death penalty, and it’s going to take every single one of us to end it. 

Rest in peace, Mike. We mourn your execution, and we remember your life. 

#MichaelBell #NoMoreDeathRow #EndTheDeathPenalty
This August marks 19 years since North Carolina ca This August marks 19 years since North Carolina carried out its last execution, a reminder of how close we've come to ending the death penalty and how far we still have to go. This moment calls for embodied, experiential engagement with what abolition truly means – join us in Raleigh on Saturday, August 16 from 2–6 PM to remember, resist, and reimagine a future of abolition together.

Since 1984, the state has executed 43 people under its current death penalty statute. Today, 121 people remain on death row, and capital punishment is still legal, upheld by a system that continues to fail the most vulnerable.

We Keep Us Alive is a free, public event to remember the lives taken, be in solidarity with those still facing death sentences, and call on North Carolina to end capital punishment once and for all. Join us for a day of immersive learning, community, and collective action. All are welcome.

📅 Saturday, August 16 
🕑 2–6 PM (But you are welcome to join for any part of the day!)
📍 Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, 1801 Hillsborough St, Raleigh, NC 27605
🔗 RSVP at bit.ly/WeKeepUsAlive or at the link in our bio

We can't wait to see you there!
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