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NC Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty

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Teens are no longer sentenced to death in NC, but many are still victims of the death penalty

March 15, 2022 · Elizabeth Hambourger

April Barber at her 1992 trial. She was tried as an adult and spent 30 years in prison for a fire she set at 15. Gov. Cooper commuted her sentence this week.
Photo courtesy of Wilkes-Journal Patriot

Few of us would choose to be judged solely on the choices we made as teens. But that is exactly what our criminal justice system does when it imposes extremely harsh punishments on mere children. Until 2004, juveniles could even be sentenced to death. There are still nineteen people on North Carolina’s death row condemned to die for crimes they are accused of committing before they turned 21. 

Today, the death penalty is off the table for crimes comitted before the age of 18. But there are still over 300 people convicted as children and serving extreme sentences in North Carolina prisons. According to the News and Observer, more than 80 percent of people sent to North Carolina prisons for crimes they committed as juveniles are people of color.

However, last week saw some progress towards reversing this brutal trend. The Juvenile Sentence Review Board, created by Governor Cooper, ordered the release of three people sentenced as juveniles. All three had already served at least two decades in prison. In addition, the North Carolina Supreme Court overturned the conviction of Utaris Reid, who was sentenced to life without parole for a crime he allegedly committed when he was just 14. In that case, evidence has emerged since the trial of the teen’s innocence. 

Even though these four people were never sentenced to death, they were still victims of the death penalty. As longtime civil rights and capital defense attorney Henderson Hill wrote in his introductory essay to CDPL’s Racist Roots project, the death penalty “sits at the top of” the criminal justice system, “condoning all its other cruelties.” As long as we have a death penalty, a lifetime in prison, even for a child, can be framed as a mercy. 

Hill is featured in CDPL’s upcoming film adaptation of the Racist Roots project, which tells the story of the racist origins of North Carolina’s death penalty and the modern movement to end it. As he explains in the film, “If you’re going to get rid of  life without parole, if you’re going to get rid of mandatory sentencing, you’ve got to take the big gorilla out of the room. And that’s the death penalty.”

Racist Roots: The Film will be released in late March. NCCADP and CDPL will be scheduling in person and online screenings and discussions of Racist Roots throughout the state. For more information and to request a screening for a group in your community, visit the Racist Roots website and view a trailer featuring Henderson Hill here.  

Filed Under: Children in Prison, Life Without Parole, Racial Bias

Elizabeth Hambourger is a senior staff attorney at the Center for Death Penalty Litigation.

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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.
Today, we honor the 1974 Raleigh march that saw th Today, we honor the 1974 Raleigh march that saw thousands stand united and unwavering against the death penalty. 

Led by the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and speakers like Angela Davis, the crowd called out a system that was rapidly condemning people to die – disproportionately Black, poor, and silenced.

Fifty-one years later, we honor the courage of these protestors and carry their fight forward. Freedom means ending the systems that cage and kill. 

The death penalty has no place in a truly free society. Not then. Not now.

Happy July 4! 

Photos courtesy of the NC State University Special Collections Research Center.

#IndependenceDay #EndTheDeathPenalty #July4 #NoMoreDeathRow
Last week, we gathered with dear friends to fuel t Last week, we gathered with dear friends to fuel the journey toward justice. We were reminded of the power of community.

A huge thank you to Gerda Stein and Lee Norris for hosting us and to @brittonbuchanan for the beautiful music – thank you for making this evening possible!

Thank you to everyone who joined us and to all who walk this path beside us. 💛

#FuelTheJourney #nccadp #EndTheDeathPenalty #NoMoreDeathRow  #AbolishTheDeathPenalty
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