A diverse and bipar­ti­san group of more than 150 promi­nent North Carolinians have urged the General Assembly to pass a mea­sure that would halt exe­cu­tions for two years while a study com­mis­sion exam­ines the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem. A let­ter to the state’s top polit­i­cal lead­ers urg­ing pas­sage of the mora­to­ri­um bill was signed by the group, which includ­ed nine for­mer North Carolina Supreme Court Justices, for­mer pros­e­cu­tors, elect­ed offi­cials, reli­gious lead­ers, busi­ness lead­ers, mur­der vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers, and not­ed North Carolina authors.

Renowned his­to­ri­an Dr. John Hope Franklin, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, Capitol Broadcasting Company President and CEO James F. Goodmon, for­mer Executive Director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation Thomas Lambeth, nov­el­ist Dorothy Betts, and Self-Help Credit Union CEO Martin Eakes also par­tic­i­pat­ed in a press con­fer­ence in sup­port of the mea­sure and called on state lead­ers to use the tem­po­rary halt to exe­cu­tions to address grow­ing con­cerns about the accu­ra­cy and fair­ness of the cur­rent death penal­ty sys­tem. ​“This is not a Republican issue or a Democratic issue. It is not pro-death penal­ty or anti-death penal­ty. This is about mak­ing sure our sys­tem is work­ing prop­er­ly, that the General Assembly gives the courts the resources it needs so we don’t have to cut cor­ners and make mis­takes,” said Goodmon. Former North Carolina bas­ket­ball coach Dean Smith (pic­tured), the cur­rent North Carolina State University coach Herb Sendek, and UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees Chair Richard ​“Stick” Williams expressed their sup­port for the bill in pub­lic state­ments. ​“I, along with many of my close friends, sup­port a two-year sus­pen­sion of exe­cu­tions because of the injus­tices in the sys­tem that have been demon­strat­ed over the last few years,” wrote Smith. (Center For Death Penalty Litigation Press Release, May 16, 2005).

Since North Carolina rein­stat­ed the death penal­ty, it has car­ried out 36 exe­cu­tions, while 5 inno­cent peo­ple have been freed from death row. See Innocence and New Voices.



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