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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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  • 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 end the death penalty?

Cruel & Unusual Punishment

Horrifically botched executions. States turning to secretive sources for drugs. Executions accidentally carried out using the wrong medication. Lethal injection is the very definition of “cruel and unusual.”

The first executions in North Carolina were carried out with hand-tied nooses before crowds of cheering picnickers. But as the 20th century dawned, North Carolina sought its place in a modernizing world that found the spectacle of public executions distasteful. Ever since, the state has been searching for a more polite way to kill people.

First, executions were moved to an electric chair inside Raleigh’s Central Prison. After people caught fire and died in agony, North Carolina built its first gas chamber. When that too led to torturous executions, as well as the risk of toxic leaks, the state moved to lethal injection in the 1980s. Yet, the appearance of a sanitized medical procedure quickly crumbled.

“Instead of the quiet death I expected, Willie began convulsing,” defense attorney Cynthia Adcock said after witnessing the 2001 execution of Willie Fisher. “The convulsing was so extreme that Willie’s cousin jumped up screaming.” Since North Carolina’s last execution in 2006, lethal injection has only become more cruel and unusual. In 2015, North Carolina passed laws making suppliers of execution drugs secret and ensuring that medical professionals assisting executions cannot be disciplined for violating their Hippocratic Oath.

No matter the method, we must end the barbaric practice of execution.

Right now in North Carolina:

  • In North Carolina, 41 of the 43 people executed in the death penalty’s modern era died by lethal injection. 
  • Executions ceased in North Carolina in 2006, after the state was sued for failing to have doctors present at executions, as the law required.
  • The state has since passed laws allowing executions to proceed without doctors and allowing the state to keep the suppliers of execution drugs secret. Despite these attempts to clear the way for executions, the process remains mired in litigation.
Last Updated: February 16, 2022

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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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