Over 100 Organizations, Leaders Call for NC to Remain Execution Free

Justice System Reform

STAY INFORMED

Stay up to date on our work with Southern communities.

Melissa Boughton

RALEIGH, N.C. (Aug. 31, 2026) — More than 100 organizations and faith and community leaders across North Carolina are calling for the state to permanently move beyond the death penalty, marking 20 years since the state’s last execution with a joint statement.

North Carolina has not carried out an execution since Aug. 18, 2006, when Samuel Flippen became the 43rd person put to death under the state’s modern death penalty. The pause has now held for two decades under five governors from both parties.

The signatories point to the 20-year record as evidence the state does not need capital punishment to keep communities safe: violent crime has dropped during the same period, and five people sentenced to death in North Carolina have since been exonerated.

Read the full statement here.

“We’ve always known the death penalty is a racist, inhumane system that has never delivered justice, only more harm,” said Graig Meyer, Executive Director of the North Carolina Justice Center, one of the signatories. “Twenty years without an execution shows North Carolina can move beyond this cruelty.”

Nationally, 33 states have either abolished capital punishment or gone at least 10 years without an execution. North Carolina’s pause is one of the longest among states that still keep the death penalty on the books.

There are 122 people currently on death row in North Carolina and six capital trials scheduled before the end of the year. The statement highlights persistent racial disparities in how death sentences are applied and the push to remain execution free as state lawmakers signal moving in the opposite direction with HB 307.

“This 20-year hiatus proves ending this practice for good is possible,” the groups said in their statement. “A system this prone to error and bias fails us all. We must not go backward.”

The statement was signed by:

• Rev. S. F. James Abbott, retired Episcopal priest
• ACLU of North Carolina
• Amnesty International USA
• Amnesty International USA Local Group 213 (Raleigh)
• Rev. Amy Andrews, Pastor, Cedarbridge Baptist Church
• Anna Banke, Director of Programs & Partnerships for Jubilee Home
• Frank R. Baumgartner, Professor of Political Science, UNC-Chapel Hill
• Rev. Diane Faires Beadle
• Molly L. Beck, M.Div.
• John Charles Boger, Emeritus Professor of Law
• Rev. Kathy Randall Bryant, Pastor, Summerfield Peace UMC
• Center for Death Penalty Litigation (CDPL)
• Rev. Philip Cooper, Rural Health Equity Ambassador
• The Rev. Dr. Jennifer Copeland, Executive Director North Carolina Council of Churches, retired
• Rev David Crispell, Executive Director, Jubilee Home
• Rev. Carol Sasser Dalton, Ministry of Hope prison chaplain, retired
• Mark Daughtridge, chair, Justice Committee, Asbury UMC
• Rev. Joyce Day, Retired UMC Clergy
• Democracy North Carolina
• Rev. Frank Dew, North Carolina Council of Churches, president of the Board
• Deacon Kimberly Dunbar, NC Synod of the ELCA
• Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina
• Franciscan Justice Circle of NC
• Franciscan Justice Circle of Winston Salem area
• Fraternity of St. Clare ofs
• Sally Freeman, former clerk Piedmont Friends Yearly Meeting
• Keri Smith Gaylord, LCSW
• Kelly Greene, Director of Member Relations
• Kaaren Haldeman, PhD MPH
• Rev. Ann Harrington, Free Spirit Inclusive Catholic Community North Carolina
• Matt Hughes, Commissioner, Town of Hillsborough
• Emma Hylton, Deaconess
• Mr. William Robert Ingram, co-founder of the Richmond County Coalition for Justice and Black Empowerment
• Amy Jackson, Prison Ministry Convenor
• Rev. Tommy James, First Baptist Burnsville
• Nancy J Jones, Catholics for Abolition in North Carolina
• Paul Klever, former Clerk, Eno Friends Meeting of Hillsborough
• Joshua Klickman, Deacon
• Kathy Krahenbuhl, First Presbyterian, Durham, NC
• The Rev. Dr. Rhonda Mawhood Lee
• Desiree Lucas, Social Worker and Minister
• Rev. Dustin M. Mailman, Founding Pastor of Deep Time
• Rev. Joe Mann, Retired United Methodist Elder, Edenton Street UMC, Raleigh
• Jim McCoy, retired minister and prison chaplain
• Rev. Robert E. McKeown, PhD
• Brenda Messera, Micah Connection, Matthews United Methodist Church
• Paris Miller-Foushee, Chapel Hill Town Council-member
• Erin Parish Mitchell, Executive Director, Human Kindness Foundation
• Joseph Moran, Retired, M.Th. & M.A. in Religious Ed.
• Rev. Dr. Marcia W. Mount Shoop, Pastor, Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, Asheville
• Rev. Veronica Murphy
• NAACP North Carolina State Conference
• National Black Worker Center
• Noel Nickle, Executive Director, NC Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
• North Carolina Conservatives Concerned
• North Carolina Justice Center
• Wendy Padilla, Orange County Board of Education
• Rev. Megan M. Pardue, Refuge Home Church UCC
• John Parker, NC Council of Churches
• Nathan Parrish, Pastor
• The Rev Christine Payden-Travers, retired Episcopal priest
• Peace, Earth, and Justice Action Committee, Asheville Friends Meeting (Quakers)
• Kenneth Pittman Jr., Director of Operations, Recidivism, Reduction, Educational Programs Services (RREPS)
• Jon Powell, Director Restorative Justice Clinic
• Rep. Renée A. Price, H-50
• Julian Ramirez, Rev. Deacon