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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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This keeps happening: Wake jury rejects death penalty for 9th time in a row

January 24, 2018

Donovan Richardson

January 24, 2018

It’s starting to feel like Groundhog Day in Wake County. Every year begins with a capital trial, and every year, the jury chooses life. This week was the ninth time since 2008 that a Wake jury said no to the death penalty. [Donovan Richardson sentenced to life in prison for 2014 double murder]

We’re hoping that, from now on, we can skip this annual ritual.

Wake is the only county in the state where a defendant has been tried capitally every year for the past three years. Since the beginning of 2016, three of North Carolina’s 10 capital trials have been in Wake County. By contrast, Mecklenburg County — home to Charlotte — hasn’t had a capital trial since 2014.

Why has a county where a jury hasn’t agreed to death sentence in a decade become North Carolina’s leader in death penalty trials? It makes no sense.

It’s not as if a capital trial is the same as a non-capital one with another sentence option thrown in. Adding the death penalty to the mix transforms the entire process. The defendant has a right to two attorneys, the jury members must be chosen based on their willingness to impose a death sentence, the trial lasts weeks longer, and the process costs more than four times as much as a non-capital prosecution.

There’s something else, too, that’s starting to get repetitive in Wake County. At every capital trial, it’s a black defendant having his fate decided by an almost entirely white jury. At the last three capital trials combined, there were only two black jurors.

In fact, we got curious and looked back. Of Wake’s nine failed capital trials since 2009, seven of the defendants were black. And during those years, several white defendants were tried non-capitally for high-profile crimes. Remember Jonathan Broyhill, Joanna Madonna, Jason Young, or Bradley Cooper?

There are just so many reasons for North Carolina’s capital county to leave the shadow of the death penalty behind.

Filed Under: Declining Support, Declining Use, Latest News, Wake County

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

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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
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