No new death sen­tences were imposed in North Carolina in 2012, mark­ing the first time since 1977 that this has occurred. The state had a record-low of four cap­i­tal tri­als in 2012. Thomas Maher, exec­u­tive direc­tor of North Carolina’s Indigent Defense Services, said, ​“In some ways, it’s a mile­stone. In oth­er ways, it’s part of a trend.” In 2000, juries in the state presided at 57 cap­i­tal tri­als, ulti­mate­ly yield­ing 18 death sen­tences. In 2011, there were 12 cap­i­tal tri­als result­ing in 3 death sen­tences. North Carolina has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion since 2006. This declin­ing use of the death penal­ty is in line with a broad­er nation­al trend. In 2011, there were 78 new death sen­tences in the U.S., a 75% drop from 1996, when 315 indi­vid­u­als were sen­tenced to death. It was the first time since 1976 that the coun­try pro­duced few­er than 100 death sen­tences in a single year.

There are no more cap­i­tal tri­als sched­uled in North Carolina this year. In 1995, the state sen­tenced 34 peo­ple to death, the most since it rein­stat­ed the death penal­ty in 1977. 

(A. Blythe, ​“No one sen­tenced to death in North Carolina this year,” Raleigh News & Observer, November 10, 2012). See Sentencing and Life Without Parole.

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