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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

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Even amid the chaos of coronavirus, states still moving away from the death penalty

March 25, 2020

As we fight a global pandemic, it feels more absurd than ever before to devote the resources of any state to trying to kill people.

Colorado state capitol

This week, some much-needed good news came out of Colorado. Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill ending the death penalty and commuting the sentences of the state’s three remaining death row prisoners. His signature made Colorado the tenth state since 2007 to decide that the death penalty isn’t necessary to maintain public safety and does more to perpetuate injustice than to ensure justice. 

Right now, with Covid-19 bearing down, most states and local governments are focusing on short-term efforts to cut jail populations and release some of the scores of people who are behind bars only because they can’t afford to pay bail. But Colorado has taken a step at the other end of the spectrum, joining a national movement away from the death penalty.

As public opinion turns against the death penalty, almost of half of U.S. states no longer have the death penalty on the books. It’s past time for North Carolina to join them in abandoning this flawed and ineffective policy. 

In North Carolina, a 2019 poll found that when voters were offered a broad range of alternatives to the death penalty, only about a quarter of them favored the death penalty. And nearly three-quarters said it’s likely an innocent person has been executed in North Carolina. In the past few decades, ten people sentenced to death in North Carolina have been exonerated. Ten innocent people on death row is a good enough reason to end the death penalty on its own.

Like North Carolina, Colorado’s death penalty was racially skewed. In a state where just 4 percent of the population is African American, all three men on its death row were black. In North Carolina, more than 140 people are living under sentences of death. Sixty percent are people of color, compared with only about 30 percent of the North Carolina population.

Also like North Carolina, Colorado had become deeply uneasy about the death penalty and long ago ceased executions. The people on its death row were sitting year after year, decade after decade, waiting for an execution that was unlikely to be carried out.

Yet, even when no one’s being executed and very few people are being sentenced to death, the death penalty has an outsize effect on a state’s criminal punishment system. It adds millions in yearly costs and skews the whole system toward harsher penalties. And it allows the state to threaten vulnerable suspects with death to assure their compliance, a pressure tactic that sometimes persuades even innocent people to confess. 

As we fight a global pandemic, it feels more absurd than ever before to devote the resources of any state to trying to kill people. We sincerely hope that, once this health crisis is over, North Carolina will follow Colorado’s lead and turn to endeavors that support life rather than death.

— March 25, 2020

Filed Under: Latest News, National News, Public Opinion, Uncategorized

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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!
Knowledge is power 👊 Visit nccadp.org to learn Knowledge is power 👊

Visit nccadp.org to learn more.
Did you know that NC hasn't executed anyone in alm Did you know that NC hasn't executed anyone in almost 19 years? Still, though, the state preserves this punishment, costing North Carolinians millions of dollars a year to hold onto this brutal relic of our past. 

Join us for a virtual info session to learn about the current state of the death penalty in North Carolina and to find your place in the movement to end it.

The death penalty doesn't make North Carolina safer. It targets those who are most vulnerable and is deeply rooted in racism and ableism. It's time for the law to catch up with what we already know: North Carolina doesn't need and doesn't want the death penalty. 

Register at bit.ly/NCCADPJuly2025 or at the link in our bio. We can't wait to see you on Tuesday, July 22 at 7 PM over Zoom. 

The movement needs you. Start here.
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