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Alabama woman works to help returning citizens rebuild their lives; Marist polls: Harris leads Trump in Michigan, Wisconsin; they're tied in Pennsylvania; UAW contract negotiations at VW focus on healthcare, safety, wages; NC dentists warn of crisis due to low Medicaid reimbursement rates.

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The Teamsters choose not to endorse a presidential candidate, county officials in Texas fight back against state moves to limit voter registration efforts, and the FBI investigate suspicious packages sent to elections offices in at least 17 states.

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A USDA report shows a widening gap in rural versus urban health, a North Carolina county remains divided over a LGBTQ library display, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz' policies are spotlighted after his elevation to the Democratic presidential ticket.

Another Year Without Executions for NC

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Friday, December 19, 2014   

RALEIGH, N.C. - The close of 2014 marks eight years since North Carolina has executed a person on death row. That's also the national trend, according to a new report by the Death Penalty Information Center. This year, three inmates were sentenced to death in North Carolina, far less than at a peak in the 1990s when as many as 30 new death sentences were handed down each year.

Gretchen Engel, executive director with the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, says people are questioning the need for the death penalty with a declining crime rate.

"Ironically in this period where North Carolina has had eight years of no executions, our crime rate has steadily been declining, and violent crime included," she says. "Part of it is this idea of why do we need the death penalty?"

Nationwide, executions were carried out in seven states, down from nine in 2013. Seven death row inmates were exonerated this year in the U.S., including two in North Carolina who were proven innocent based on DNA evidence and released.

State lawmakers vowed to re-start executions last year, but Engel says that declaration may not be practical, as more cases of botched executions prompt people to question the humanity of the punishment.

"That really amounts to putting the state in the position of advocating human experimentation with drugs and that's just unacceptable in a civilized society," she says.

North Carolina's execution protocol calls for the use of pentobarbital, the same drug that other states have been unable to obtain for use in executions. As of now, legal challenges to the state's protocol have suspended executions indefinitely.



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