Death sen­tences are sharply down in North Carolina and the com­bi­na­tion of cost con­cerns and more effec­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tion have made them pro­gres­sive­ly rare. In an inter­view with The Hickory Daily Record, David Learner, District Attorney for the 25th pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al dis­trict encom­pass­ing Catawba, Caldwell, and Burke coun­ties, who has per­son­al­ly tried two death-eli­gi­ble cas­es, says ​“It’s extra­or­di­nar­i­ly dif­fi­cult to get a death ver­dict. … [Y]ou come to real­ize it’s very dif­fi­cult for a jury seat­ed in that box to say ​‘yes, you need to kill that man.’” Murder cas­es in which the death penal­ty may be sought are defend­ed by five region­al cap­i­tal defend­er offices, which have a record of effec­tive­ly inves­ti­gat­ing cas­es and nego­ti­at­ing non-cap­i­tal out­comes. According to sta­tis­tics main­tained by the North Carolina Office of Indigent Defense Services (NCIDS), from 2007 to 2015, near­ly 60% of cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tions end­ed with non-cap­i­tal con­vic­tions for sec­ond-degree mur­der or less, and only 2.2 per­cent of all cap­i­tal cas­es in the state result­ed in death sen­tences. In Wake County, juries have returned life ver­dicts in eight con­sec­u­tive cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing tri­als. When a case is charged, Assistant Capital Defender Victoria James told the paper, ​“you know what hap­pened, but you don’t know why it hap­pened.… And that’s where you get into the client’s men­tal health, provo­ca­tion, and many times, those are the kind of cas­es you hope to be able to resolve with­out going to tri­al.” With rep­re­sen­ta­tion by the region­al cap­i­tal defend­ers, there have been only 5 death sen­tences in the state over the past five years, down from 140 death sen­tences imposed 20 years ago in the five years span­ning 1992 – 1996. No one has been exe­cut­ed in the state since 2006 and most of the 262 pris­on­ers who the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (NCDPS) says have been removed from death row have been resen­tenced to life in prison with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole after their con­vic­tions or death sen­tences were over­turned. Although 98% of North Carolina cas­es that start out as cap­i­tal do not end up with a death sen­tence, pur­su­ing the death penal­ty has had sig­nif­i­cant finan­cial con­se­quences. NCIDS reports that, in fis­cal years 2007 to 2015, the aver­age costs were 4.4 times high­er in a cap­i­tal case ($93,231 per case) than when pros­e­cu­tors did not pur­sue the death penal­ty ($21,022 per case). A Duke University study in 2009 con­clud­ed that repeal of the death penal­ty would have pro­duced approx­i­mate­ly $10.8 mil­lion in annu­al sav­ings from reduced expen­di­tures on mur­der cas­es. Between 2008 and 2013, the per­cent­age of cas­es in which pros­e­cu­tors have sought the death penal­ty has fall­en from 28.1% to 11%, and bud­get cuts to the North Carolina Attorney General’s office have shift­ed to local dis­trict attor­neys the cost of crim­i­nal appeals that used to be han­dled by state pros­e­cu­tors. ​“This thing about, ​‘we need to exe­cute him,’ the actu­al mechan­ics of the court sys­tem, it’s not hap­pen­ing,” Learner said. ​“Realizing the real­i­ty of the death penal­ty in North Carolina through the court sys­tem, it’s real­ly about worth­less.” Looking to the future, he said, ​“I wouldn’t be sur­prised if North Carolina even­tu­al­ly had a mora­to­ri­um or com­plete­ly dis­man­tled the death penalty.”

(M. Seng, ​“It’s not a game”: District Attorney, Capital Defender dive into impor­tance of nego­ti­a­tions, death penal­ty inef­fec­tive­ness,” The Hickory Daily Record, September 24, 2017.) See Costs, Representation, and Sentencing.

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