A diverse and bipartisan group of more than 150 prominent North Carolinians have urged the General Assembly to pass a measure that would halt executions for two years while a study commission examines the state’s capital punishment system. A letter to the state’s top political leaders urging passage of the moratorium bill was signed by the group, which included nine former North Carolina Supreme Court Justices, former prosecutors, elected officials, religious leaders, business leaders, murder victims’ family members, and noted North Carolina authors.

Renowned historian Dr. John Hope Franklin, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, Capitol Broadcasting Company President and CEO James F. Goodmon, former Executive Director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation Thomas Lambeth, novelist Dorothy Betts, and Self-Help Credit Union CEO Martin Eakes also participated in a press conference in support of the measure and called on state leaders to use the temporary halt to executions to address growing concerns about the accuracy and fairness of the current death penalty system. “This is not a Republican issue or a Democratic issue. It is not pro-death penalty or anti-death penalty. This is about making sure our system is working properly, that the General Assembly gives the courts the resources it needs so we don’t have to cut corners and make mistakes,” said Goodmon. Former North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith (pictured), the current North Carolina State University coach Herb Sendek, and UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees Chair Richard “Stick” Williams expressed their support for the bill in public statements. “I, along with many of my close friends, support a two-year suspension of executions because of the injustices in the system that have been demonstrated over the last few years,” wrote Smith. (Center For Death Penalty Litigation Press Release, May 16, 2005).

Since North Carolina reinstated the death penalty, it has carried out 36 executions, while 5 innocent people have been freed from death row. See Innocence and New Voices.