FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Liv Perkins-Davenport, Director of Communications & Development, (919) 404-7409, liv@nccadp.org
DURHAM, N.C. – North Carolina has now gone 20 years without an execution, even as recent changes to state law have opened the door to their return. On Saturday, people directly impacted by the death penalty will join legal experts and scholars in Durham to examine what those two decades have taught the state and what comes next.
The North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty will host Beyond the Death Penalty: Symposium from 1 to 4 p.m. Aug. 22 at Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Durham. The free event will explore the costs of maintaining the death penalty, North Carolina’s record of wrongful convictions, and the challenges and opportunities ahead for efforts to end capital punishment.
North Carolina executed Samuel Flippen on Aug. 18, 2006. In the two decades since, the state has carried out no executions. Death sentences have become increasingly rare, and six people have been exonerated from death row.
At the same time, North Carolina has moved closer to restarting executions. House Bill 307, passed last year, accelerated post-conviction review in capital cases and authorized an alternative method of execution if lethal injection is unavailable. Today, 122 people live on death row.
“Twenty years without an execution has given North Carolina a generation of experience with another way,” said Noel Nickle, executive director of NCCADP. “We know more about the death penalty today than we did in 2006, including how often it gets things wrong and how much it takes from families and communities.”
Saturday’s symposium will bring together people with firsthand experience of the death penalty and experts who have spent decades working within the system. Alongside homicide victim family members and others directly impacted by the death penalty, speakers include:
- Alfred Rivera, North Carolina death row exoneree
- Shelagh Kenney, executive director, Center for Death Penalty Litigation
- Ben Finholt, director of Second Chances & Legal Advocacy, Wilson Center at Duke Law
- David Weiss and Brian Stull, assistant federal defenders, Capital Habeas Unit for the Fourth Circuit
The symposium will conclude by looking ahead at what it will take to move North Carolina beyond the death penalty and toward other responses to violence and harm.
The event is open to the public. Registration is available at https://nccadp.org/20th-anniversary/.
WHAT: Beyond the Death Penalty: Symposium
WHEN: Saturday, Aug. 22, 1 to 4 p.m.
WHERE: Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Fellowship Hall, 4907 Garrett Rd., Durham, NC 27707
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The North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (nccadp.org) is a statewide collective of 28 partner organizations working to end the death penalty and advance a vision of justice that addresses harm without perpetuating it.
