North Carolina Republican lawmakers have changed state law and committed hundreds of thousands of dollars to break a long moratorium on executions. But 20 years after the state last put someone to death, another execution could still be years away.
Rabbi Sandra Lawson, who leads the group North Carolina Jews For Justice, wants the 20-year pause to continue.
Other WRAL Top Stories
“We’ve all heard the cases that people were exonerated and not put to death — or exonerated after they were put to death,” Lawson told WRAL during an interview Tuesday ahead of a planned protest outside Central Prison in Raleigh. “And I'm also clergy, I'm a rabbi, and I do believe that we as human beings should not be the decider of who gets to be put to death.”
But the death penalty stoppage is anathema to Republican politicians who say the ability to put convicted murderers to death is a necessary part of society.
“When someone has committed a heinous crime, and there's proof of it without a shadow of a doubt, you can sign me up — I'll pull the trigger,” said Sen. Carl Ford, R-Rowan, during debate in the state Senate earlier this year over whether the state should start using firing squads in an attempt to bring back executions.
The death penalty remains legal, but capital cases must first work through appeals and post-conviction proceedings. House Bill 307, titled Iryna’s Law, passed last year, puts new deadlines on those cases and requires state officials to find new ways to resume executions if lethal injection — for years, the state’s only method — isn’t an option.
The law doesn't require Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s administration to resume executions by a certain date, and Stein — who oversees the state's Department of Adult Correction — has expressed deep opposition to that part of the law, even though he signed the bill containing it into law.
A spokesperson for Stein referred WRAL to the agency for comment.
Lethal injection is currently the state’s preferred method for executions, but legal battles over the method have prevented its use. Republican lawmakers have pushed for other methods, such as the electric chair or firing squads, a practice used in South Carolina. Stein has pushed back on the latter method.
“It's barbaric,” Stein said last year after signing the new crime-and-safety changes into law. “There will be no firing squad in North Carolina while I'm governor.”
Why executions stopped in North Carolina
North Carolina last executed someone on Aug. 18, 2006.
Executions stalled amid legal disputes over how they would be carried out and unresolved challenges from people sentenced to death.
One of the biggest remaining hurdles dates to the Racial Justice Act, which North Carolina enacted in 2009. The law allowed people sentenced to death to challenge their sentences if race was a significant factor in how the death penalty was sought or imposed.
In recent years multiple convicted murderers, many of them Black men, have been exonerated and set free after proving they were actually innocent — and that police had framed them, or that the state otherwise tainted its case against them.
On his last day in office, then-Gov. Roy Cooper commuted the death penalty sentences of 15 men on death row, resentencing them to life in prison without the possibility of parole. At the time he cited multiple reasons behind the various decisions, including concerns about racial bias against some, or questions that others were actually innocent.
The Racial Justice Act was passed by Democrats when they controlled the legislature. Republicans repealed it soon after taking control of the legislature in 2011, but the North Carolina Supreme Court later ruled that people who had already filed claims could continue pursuing them.
More than 100 of the 123 people on North Carolina’s death row still have Racial Justice Act claims pending, according to Mark Rabil, a clinical professor at Wake Forest University School of Law and director of its Innocence and Justice Clinic.
“You can’t have executions while people have motions pending in court for review,” Rabil told WRAL Tuesday.
Other challenges can continue in state and federal courts. North Carolina has exonerated 12 people who were once sentenced to death. And a 2019 poll by Public Policy Polling found that 70% of North Carolinians believe innocent people have likely been put to death by the state.
Lethal injection also became the subject of litigation. One dispute involved the North Carolina Medical Board, which said physicians could face discipline for participating in executions beyond simply being present. The state Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that the board could not discipline doctors for participating as required by state law.
Iryna’s Law puts cases on a clock
Republican lawmakers sought to accelerate the death-penalty process last year through Iryna's Law.
Automatic reviews of death sentences by the North Carolina Supreme Court generally must now occur within 24 months. Capital post-conviction motions generally must also be heard within 24 months. Additional time constraints could make it harder for inmates on death row to appeal their sentences.
Certain older cases must be scheduled for hearing or review by Dec. 1, 2026, and heard or reviewed by Dec. 1, 2027. Judges can allow more time. Those deadlines apply to the state process. Defendants can still pursue federal constitutional claims after their cases move through state courts.
Lawmakers also directed new resources toward the backlog.
The state budget, which was signed into law in July, funded 11 additional lawyers and support staff to work specifically on the pending capital cases. The state is spending nearly $900,000 a year on that effort to speed the appeals along. For the next three years the General Assembly has given $4.5 million to hire capital litigation attorneys.
Before that funding, Attorney General Jeff Jackson didn’t have the staff lawmakers believed was needed to move the cases through the process, according to Sen. Danny Britt, R-Robeson.
The positions are time-limited, and Britt said lawmakers could later consider whether some should become permanent.
Jackson, a Democrat, didn’t campaign in 2024 on supporting the death penalty but also hasn’t taken steps to oppose it. His spokesperson told WRAL last year that he’ll continue fighting to uphold death penalty convictions as long as that remains part of his duties in office.
What about lethal injection?
Lethal injection remains North Carolina’s only legal execution method, but Iryna’s Law requires Stein and other state officials to figure out an alternative if it can’t be used or it's unavailable.
Drugs used for lethal injection have become more scarce due to export bans or as manufacturers seek to avoid using their products in executions.
If lethal injection is ruled unconstitutional or becomes unavailable for another reason, the law requires the state Department of Adult Correction secretary to select another method already used by another state that has not been declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The law doesn’t specify a method. Republican lawmakers have previously considered electrocution and firing squad, which is used in other states including South Carolina.
Stein, who has said he supports the death penalty for the most heinous crimes, has said he wouldn't allow firing squads while he is governor.
Britt said he is interested to see what prison officials do when the issue reaches the department.
“I am very curious to see once the ball is in Secretary Dismukes’ hands what she actually does,” Britt said, referring to Leslie Cooley Dismukes, who leads the state’s Department of Adult Corrections.
A department spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to questions about the state’s supply of lethal injections and the availability of qualified personnel necessary to carry out an execution
Britt said the pending appeals and motions must be resolved before prison officials can carry out an execution.
Iryna’s Law can accelerate state proceedings, but the state has no control over federal proceedings.
“We're still a few years away from beginning that process because the appeals process takes so long,” Britt said.