FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
- NCCADP: Liv Perkins-Davenport, Director of Communications & Development, (919) 404-7409, liv@nccadp.org
- SCSJ: Melissa Boughton, Director of Communications, 830-481-6901, melissa@scsj.org
RALEIGH, N.C. — More than 100 organizations and faith and community leaders across North Carolina are calling for the state to permanently move beyond the death penalty, marking 20 years since the state’s last execution with a joint statement.
North Carolina has not carried out an execution since Aug. 18, 2006, when Samuel Flippen became the 43rd person put to death under the state’s modern death penalty. The pause has now held for two decades under five governors from both parties.
The signatories point to the 20-year record as evidence the state does not need capital punishment to keep communities safe: violent crime has dropped during the same period, and six people sentenced to death in North Carolina have since been exonerated.
“We’ve always known the death penalty is a racist, inhumane system that has never delivered justice, only more harm,” said Graig Meyer, Executive Director of the North Carolina Justice Center, one of the signatories. “Twenty years without an execution shows North Carolina can move beyond this cruelty.”
Nationally, 33 states have either abolished capital punishment or gone at least 10 years without an execution. North Carolina’s pause is one of the longest among states that still keep the death penalty on the books.
There are 122 people currently on death row in North Carolina and six capital trials scheduled before the end of the year. The statement highlights persistent racial disparities in how death sentences are applied and the push to remain execution free as state lawmakers signal moving in the opposite direction with HB 307.
“This 20-year hiatus proves ending this practice for good is possible,” the groups said in their statement. “A system this prone to error and bias fails us all. We must not go backward.”
The statement was signed by:
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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The North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty is a statewide, grassroots collective of 28 partner organizations working to end the death penalty and advance a vision of justice that addresses harm without perpetuating it.
Southern Coalition for Social Justice came together in 2007 to give Black, Brown, and low-income people better resources in the fight for justice across the South. We are lawyers, social scientists, and communications professionals working to dismantle racism and oppression in the criminal legal system, in our environment, and at the ballot box. Learn more at southerncoalition.org and follow our work on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
