More than 150 promi­nent res­i­dents of North Carolina have asked the House of Representatives and Governor Michael Easley to sup­port a two-year sus­pen­sion of exe­cu­tions in the state and to con­duct a death penal­ty study. North Carolina’s Senate passed the mea­sure in May, and a vote in the House is expect­ed this month. In a let­ter call­ing for the bil­l’s enact­ment into law, note­wor­thy North Carolinians, includ­ing for­mer judges and cor­po­rate lead­ers, not­ed that ​“legit­i­mate con­cerns about the fair­ness and accu­ra­cy of our sys­tem of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment exist and must be addressed.” Specifically, the let­ter men­tions sev­er­al recent cas­es in which death sen­tences have been over­turned by state courts. Read the let­ter and see a com­plete list­ing of sig­na­to­ries.

See Innocence and Recent Legislative Activity.

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