Former North Carolina Judge Tom Ross is urg­ing state law­mak­ers to enact leg­is­la­tion that would impose a two-year mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions, a step he says is nec­es­sary in order to pre­vent an inno­cent per­son from being exe­cut­ed in the state. During his career, Ross served as a Superior Court Judge for 18 years, as the chair of the North Carolina Sentencing Commission, and as direc­tor of the Administrative Office of the Courts. He is cur­rent­ly the exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. In a ​“Point of View” col­umn in The News & Observer, Ross stated:

There are things we can do to make our sys­tem bet­ter. I applaud our chief jus­tice of the state Supreme Court for his cre­ation of the Innocence Commission, of which I am a mem­ber. I endorse the bill rec­om­mend­ed by the Commission to cre­ate a per­ma­nent body to exam­ine cas­es of inno­cence; how­ev­er, that com­mis­sion would not deal with many of the prob­lems fac­ing our cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem, such as inad­e­quate coun­sel, pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, and racial dis­par­i­ty.

The bill in the leg­is­la­ture for a death penal­ty mora­to­ri­um does not stop cap­i­tal tri­als. It does not mean that any­one already sen­tenced to death will not ulti­mate­ly be exe­cut­ed. What it does mean is that our state has the courage to stop exe­cu­tions for a two-year peri­od to allow the sys­tem to be close­ly stud­ied and see if there are improve­ments that can be rec­om­mend­ed that can insure that we, not as Republicans or Democrats, but as human beings, don’t make the ulti­mate mis­take and allow an inno­cent per­son to be exe­cut­ed.

We should pause and be cer­tain that every­thing pos­si­ble is done to insure that the sys­tem works fair­ly and accu­rate­ly in every case. As a per­son of faith liv­ing in a civ­i­lized soci­ety, I don’t see how we can do oth­er­wise. (The News & Observer, June 16, 2005).

See New Voices, Innocence, and Recent Legislative Activity.

Citation Guide