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State And Federal Info

North Carolina

Notable Exonerations

Henry McCollum and Leon Brown, two brothers who were convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1984, were freed in 2014 because of evidence uncovered by the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission. McCollum was 19 and Brown was 15 when they confessed to the rape and murder of 11-year-old Sabrina Buie. Both men are intellectually disabled - McCollum has an IQ in the 60s and Brown has scored as low as 49 on IQ tests. McCollum and Brown have maintained their innocence since their trial, saying they were unaware they were signing a confession.

Jonathon Hoffman, a black man charged with killing a white man, was tried and convicted by an all-white jury despite the fact that no physical evidence connected him to the murder of Danny Cook. The prosecutors in his case withheld evidence that was favorable to Hoffman. Neither the defense attorney nor the judge knew of a deal in which prosecutors paid Hoffman’s cousin to testify against him—an omission that resulted in the criminal investigation of Ken Honeycutt and Scott Brewer, the prosecutors in the original trial. Charges were dismissed in 2007, after Hoffman had spent 12 years on death row.

Glen Edward Chapman was granted a new trial in 2007, due to withheld evidence, “lost, misplaced or destroyed” documents, the use of weak, circumstantial evidence, false testimony by the lead investigator, and ineffective assistance of defense counsel. There was also new information from a forensic pathologist that raised doubts as to whether the murder for which Chapman was convicted was a homicide or caused by an overdose of drugs. Chapman was released in 2008, when charges against him were dropped.

Levon “Bo” Jones’ conviction was overturned due to his defense counsel’s “constitutionally deficient” performance. In April 2008, shortly before a retrial was set to begin, Jones’ new defense team filed an affidavit in which the star witness from his first trial said, “Much of what I testified to was simply not true.” Jones spent 15 years on death row, and was released in May 2008

Milestones in Abolition/Reinstatement

Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1972 decision in Furman v. Georgia, invalidating all death sentences nationwide, the North Carolina Supreme Court reviewed North Carolina’s death penalty statute in 1973 in State v. Waddell. The Waddell court held that the unconstitutionality of North Carolina’s death penalty statute could be resolved by severing the portion of the statute that allowed a jury to recommend either a life sentence or a death sentence. The decision therefore made future death sentences mandatory. In 1974, the North Carolina legislature followed the Waddell decision by enacting a mandatory death penalty statute.

Three years later, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down North Carolina’s mandatory death sentencing scheme in Woodson v. North Carolina. The North Carolina legislature responded by enacting a new death penalty statute that took effect on June 1, 1977.

In August 2009, North Carolina passed the Racial Justice Act, which prohibited seeking or imposing the death penalty on the basis of race, included the use of statewide statistical evidence to show a pattern of racial discrimination, and applied retroactively for one year.

Kentucky was the first state to pass a Racial Justice Act, though NC’s RJA differed from Kentucky’s as it allowed for retroactive application and also permitted the use of statistical evidence to show that race was a “significant factor in decisions to seek or impose the sentence of death in the county, the prosecutorial district, or the State at large at the time the death sentence was sought or imposed.”

In 2013, the legislature repealed the Racial Justice Act. Prior to repeal, four inmates had been granted relief under the act, but those decisions were vacated by the North Carolina Supreme Court in December 2015.

North Carolina “Firsts”

Indigent Services Commission, created in July, 2001, developed standards governing the qualifications of defense counsel, required counsel to seek consultations with the Center for Death Penalty Litigation prior to trial, took over the responsibility of appointing and compensating counsel through the Office of the Capital Defender, provided increased training and supervision of attorneys, and took over responsibility for allocating the resources for experts, investigators, and other expenses incurred in defending a capital trial.

Innocence Inquiry Commission

The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission is the first of its kind in the nation. The Commission was created by the North Carolina General Assembly in 2006 and began operating in 2007. Since then, the Commission has reviewed hundreds of innocence claims and conducted multiple hearings. On February 17, 2010, Gregory Taylor was the first person to be exonerated by this unique process. Mr. Taylor was declared innocent by a panel of three judges after serving 17 years for a murder that he did not commit.

Four of North Carolina's exonerees (three from death row): (front row, from left to right) Levon “Bo” Jones, Jonathan Hoffman, Glen Edward Chapman and Darryl Hunt. Photo by Jack Payden-Travers.
Four of North Carolina’s exonerees (three from death row): (front row, from left to right) Levon ​“Bo” Jones, Jonathan Hoffman, Glen Edward Chapman and Darryl Hunt. Photo by Jack Payden-Travers.

Resources

  • North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
  • Center for Death Penalty Litigation
  • Department of Corrections
  • North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys
  • Indigent Defense Services
  • Victims’ services
  • The Death Penalty in North Carolina: A Summary of the Data and Scientific Studies by Dr. Matthew Robinson of Appalachian State University
  • People of Faith Against the Death Penalty

North Carolina Execution Totals Since 1976

News & Developments


Costs

Jul 15, 2021

Hidden Costs: Liability Judgments for Wrongful Capital Prosecutions Cost Taxpayers in Death-Penalty States Hundreds of Millions of Dollars

Studies have con­sis­tent­ly found that a sys­tem of crim­i­nal law in which the death penal­ty is avail­able as a pun­ish­ment is far more expen­sive than a system …

Hidden Costs: Liability Judgments for Wrongful Capital Prosecutions Cost Taxpayers in Death-Penalty States Hundreds of Millions of Dollars

Representation

Jun 28, 2021

Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of June 21, 2021

NEWS (6/​25/​21) — Alabama: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has affirmed an Alabama fed­er­al dis­trict court deci­sion dismissing 

Race

May 28, 2021

In New Round of Racial Justice Act Litigation, North Carolina Judge Orders Prosecutors to Disclose Data on Decades of Jury Strikes

In the first Racial Justice Act case to reach a hear­ing since the North Carolina Supreme Court struck down the state legislature’s attempt to retroac­tive­ly repeal the land­mark law, a North Carolina judge has ordered state prosecut…

In New Round of Racial Justice Act Litigation, North Carolina Judge Orders Prosecutors to Disclose Data on Decades of Jury Strikes

Innocence

May 17, 2021

North Carolina Jury Awards Death-Row Exonerees Henry McCollum and Leon Brown $75M for Their Wrongful Capital Convictions

In a case the late Justice Antonin Scalia tout­ed as a jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, a North Carolina fed­er­al jury has award­ed two intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled death-row exonerees $75 mil­lion for the police mis­con­duct that sent …

North Carolina Jury Awards Death-Row Exonerees Henry McCollum and Leon Brown $75M for Their Wrongful Capital Convictions

May 17, 2021

Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of May 10, 2021

NEWS (5/​14/​21) — North Carolina: A Rowan County tri­al judge has resen­tenced William Barnes to con­sec­u­tive life sen­tences for the mur­ders of an elder­ly North Carolina cou­ple in 1992, after the coun­ty dis­trict attorney’s office 

Innocence

Mar 29, 2021

North Carolina Bar Suspends License of Lawyer Who Defrauded Death-Row Exonerees

The North Carolina state bar has sus­pend­ed the law license of a lawyer whose preda­to­ry rep­re­sen­ta­tion of two intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled death-row exonerees defraud­ed them of hun­dreds of thou­sands of dol­lars. After a multi-da…

North Carolina Bar Suspends License of Lawyer Who Defrauded Death-Row Exonerees

Race

Nov 25, 2020

New DPIC Podcast Discusses ​‘Racist Roots’ and ​‘Enduring Injustice’ of U.S. Death Penalty

In the November 2020 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Gretchen Engel (pic­tured, left), Executive Director of North Carolina’s Center for Death Penalty Litigation (CDPL), joins Ngozi Ndulue (pic­tured, below), Senior Director of Research a…

New DPIC Podcast Discusses ‘Racist Roots’ and ‘Enduring Injustice’ of U.S. Death Penalty

Race

Oct 07, 2020

Groundbreaking ​‘Racist Roots’ Project Exposes Racism Endemic in North Carolina’s Death Penalty

North Carolina’s death penal­ty is a weapon of social con­trol root­ed in a racist past. That is the mes­sage of a ground­break­ing new col­lab­o­ra­tive project, Racist Roots: Origins of North Carolin…

Groundbreaking 'Racist Roots' Project Exposes Racism Endemic in North Carolina’s Death Penalty

Race

Sep 28, 2020

North Carolina Supreme Court Restores Life Sentences to Three Prisoners Whose Death Sentences Violated Racial Justice Act

The North Carolina Supreme Court has ordered that three African American death-row pris­on­ers who had proven that their death sen­tences vio­lat­ed the state’s since repealed Racial Justice Act (RJA) must be resenten…

North Carolina Supreme Court Restores Life Sentences to Three Prisoners Whose Death Sentences Violated Racial Justice Act

Race

Aug 17, 2020

Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of August 10, 2020

NEWS (8/​14/​20) — Alabama: The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals has affirmed a low­er court rul­ing grant­i­ng a new tri­al to death-row pris­on­er Ste…

View More

View Information by State

Additional Information


  • Death Penalty: Yes
  • Number of Executions Since 1976: 43
  • Number of Executions Before 1976 (may include federal and military executions): 784
  • Current Death Row Population: 139
  • Women on Death Row: 2
  • Number of Innocent People Freed From Death Row: 12
  • Number of Clemencies Granted: 5
  • Date of Reinstatement (following Furman v. Georgia): January 18, 1973; June 1, 1977
  • First Execution After Reinstatement: 1984
  • Location of Death Row/Executions (Men): Central Prison, Raleigh
  • Location of Death Row/Executions (Women): North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women, Raleigh
  • Capital: Raleigh
  • Region: South
  • Population: 10,488,084
  • Murder Rate (per 100,000 population): 6.03
  • Is Life Without Parole an Option?: Yes
  • Can defendant get death for a felony in which s/he was not responsible for the murder?: Yes
  • Method of Execution: Injection
  • How is Sentence Determined?: Jury
  • Clemency Process: Governor has sole authority to grant clemency
  • Governor: Roy Cooper

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