Gov. Cooper’s commutation of 15 death sentences to life without parole represents a historic step in North Carolina’s ongoing shift away from the death penalty and recognizes serious flaws in the capital punishment system.
The 15 death row commutations granted by North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper today are an important step toward addressing the injustices of the death penalty. While his action was not as broad as advocates asked for, these commutations represent a larger action than any other NC governor has taken to curtail the modern death penalty.
Those commuted will not be released from prison, but will serve life sentences. They will be spared the horror of executions based on unjust and racially biased trials.
Prior to Gov. Cooper’s action, just five people in North Carolina have had their death sentences commuted to life sentences since the creation of the modern death penalty in 1976. Until now, no NC governor had commuted more than two death sentences, and every previous commutation came on the eve of a scheduled execution. By contrast, Gov. Cooper’s action came after an 18-year pause in executions and is a historic step for North Carolina.
Cases commuted by Gov. Cooper involve evidence of serious flaws, including racial bias and the use of the death penalty in cases of severe mental illness, intellectual disability, or young people whose brains have not fully developed. Many of those commuted were sentenced to death more than 25 years ago, before key reforms that drastically reduced the number of death sentences in North Carolina.
Public support for executions has declined consistently over the past 25 years.
Gov. Cooper’s action reflects a growing public distaste for the death penalty. A Gallup poll released in November found U.S. death penalty support at a 40-year low, with a majority of Millenials and Gen Z now opposing it.
In North Carolina this year, there were just three capital trials and juries voted for life sentences in all three. Prosecutors across the state are electing not to pursue death sentences in the overwhelming majority of homicide cases.
Death row commutations are supported by a broad cross section of North Carolinians, including death row exonerees and family members who lost loved ones to homicide. For the past two years, a coalition of more than a dozen statewide justice and civil rights advocacy organizations, alongside thousands of North Carolinians, had been asking Cooper to commute all death sentences to prison terms. Their request was supported by hundreds of leaders from all of North Carolina’s faith traditions, as well as elected officials, prosecutors and former judges, professional associations, and national advocacy organizations.
Gov. Cooper’s action put him in line with national trends. Until now, he was the only Democratic governor in a state with the death penalty who had not taken at least some executive action to prevent executions or curtail the death penalty. He also joins Republican governors in Tennessee and Ohio who have taken steps to stop executions.
More work remains to ensure North Carolina moves toward more effective and just responses to crime.
Even with these commutations, North Carolina will continue to have the fifth largest death row in the nation with 121 people awaiting execution. The cases that remain are tainted by serious flaws including race discrimination in jury selection, racist language used at trials, questionable evidence, and defendants with mental illness or other conditions that make them particularly vulnerable to excessive sentences.
The North Carolina death penalty has been an enormous drain on resources while failing to deter crime or improve public safety. The death penalty has risked the execution of innocent people and runs counter to the belief in the dignity of all human beings and their capacity for redemption.
People of conscience who oppose state-sponsored killing will continue to ask state leaders to take action to ensure that executions do not resume in North Carolina.
