skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Hurricane Milton makes landfall near Siesta Key; expected to remain a hurricane as it moves across central FL; Groups file an emergency lawsuit to reopen FL voter registration amid hurricanes; ND wildfires: Heavy damage to cropland; importance of early warnings; Report: 67 PA counties boom for low unemployment, job growth, wage increase.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

President Biden denounces disinformation about federal disaster response. Experts address concerns about how hurricanes impact voting, and activists left and right question VP Harris' stance on meat.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Hurricane Helene has some rural North Carolina towns worried larger communities might get more attention, mixed feelings about ranked choice voting on the Oregon ballot next month, and New York farmers earn money feeding school kids.

Report: Obsolete Laws Used to Sentence Most NC Death Row Inmates

play audio
Play

Wednesday, October 10, 2018   

RALEIGH, N.C. – In North Carolina, 141 men and women currently face death sentences, making the state home to the sixth-largest death row population in the country. This week, a new report from the Center for Death Penalty Litigation reveals that about three-quarters of these people were sentenced before a number of reforms were passed to ensure fairness and prevent wrongful convictions.

Gretchen Engel, the center's executive director, said the difference between then and now is significant - and frustrating.

"We know that if these crimes happened today, that most of the people would not face the death penalty at trial," she said, "and if they went to trial, would very unlikely be sentenced to death."

The report, called "Unequal Justice," found that 92 percent of people on death row were sentenced before 2008, when a package of state reforms took effect. Many were tried in the 1990s, when 25 to 35 were sentenced to death each year. Public opinion largely has shifted on capital punishment since then, although supporters of the death penalty have argued it is needed in the most heinous of crimes.

The report comes as North Carolina passed its 12th year without an execution and is on track for another year with no new death sentences. One person has received a death sentence in the last four years.

With the current knowledge of better trial practices and shifting public opinion, Engel said, the 141 cases should be reconsidered.

"Given that we have decided that the fairer way and the more reliable way of imposing the death penalty is under our current system," she said, "we have to go back and figure out a mechanism to evaluate these old cases."

Many of the reforms came after multiple exonerations in the Tar Heel State and elsewhere, where some people on death row were found to be innocent.

The report is online at cdpl.org.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Hurricane Milton grew to become a major hurricane on the morning of Oct. 7, 2024. (AWS S3 Explorer/Wikimedia Commons)

Social Issues

play sound

As powerhouse Hurricane Milton nears the Florida coastline, communities in the Tampa Bay area are extending relief efforts initially launched for …


Environment

play sound

By Matt Vasilogambros and Kevin Hardy for Stateline.Broadcast version by Kathleen Shannon for California News Service reporting for the Solutions Jour…

Environment

play sound

By Erik Hoffner for Mongabay.Broadcast version by Kathryn Carley for Maine News Service reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Ser…


According to the Prison Policy Institute, Illinois's incarceration rate of 433 per 100,000 people ranks the state as having nearly the highest lockup rate of any democratic country. (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Two specific types of cancer are showing up in high numbers among people in jail and prison and Illinois is no exception. A new study found a lack …

Social Issues

play sound

New data show many Connecticut residents can't afford daily life. This year's ALICE update shows the number of asset-limited, income-constrained …

Lt. Gov. Penny Flanagan, DFL-Minn., could become the first Native American woman to serve as governor if the Harris-Walz ticket wins the White House. (Office of the Governor)

Social Issues

play sound

It is the first day of early voting in Arizona and both presidential hopefuls will be making their cases to voters. Gov. Tim Walz, DFL-Minn.…

Social Issues

play sound

Immigration boosts the economy - in Colorado and across the U.S. But new policies are needed to maximize gains and make it harder for employers to …

Health and Wellness

play sound

In Ohio, the effects of domestic violence continue to devastate families. The Ohio Domestic Violence Network released its ninth annual fatality …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021