On his final day in office, North Carolina’s governor commuted the sentences of 15 death row inmates to life without the chance of parole.
Roy Cooper, a Democrat, revealed his clemency move on New Year’s Eve, earning acclaim from opponents of capital punishment who have called for large commutations to prevent executions.
Cooper’s handouts do not include scores of prisoners who are still on execution row. Cooper had received 89 clemency petitions from the state’s 136 death row inmates, according to the governor’s office. His office stated that it took into account the circumstances of the crime, testimony from prosecutors and victims, “credible claims of innocence,” the “potential influence of race,” jail conduct, a defendant’s age and intellectual competence at the time of the incident, and other case variables.
“After thorough review, reflection, and prayer, I concluded that the death sentence imposed on these 15 people should be commuted, while ensuring they will spend the rest of their lives in prison,” Cooper clarified in a statement.
His action comes after Joe Biden, in his final weeks in office, commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 prisoners on federal capital row, saving them from execution under Donald Trump.
The American Civil Liberties Union praised the clemency decision for Hasson Bacote, a Black man sentenced to death in 2009. Bacote filed a lead case challenging the death penalty under the state’s Racial Justice Act (RJA). That provision, introduced in 2009, permitted defendants to contest death sentences if they could show that race played a part in the trial. The RJA was repealed by lawmakers in 2013, but courts decided that persons with pending claims were entitled to hearings, according to an ACLU statement released on Tuesday.
Historians, statisticians, and other experts testified at Bacote’s hearings about prosecutors’ discrimination against Black defendants in jury selection throughout North Carolina, according to the ACLU.
“Mr Bacote presented unequivocal evidence – unlike any that has ever been presented in a North Carolina courtroom – that the death penalty is racist,” said Shelagh Kenney, deputy director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, which represented him along with the ACLU and Legal Defense Fund. “Through years of investigation and the examination of thousands of pages of documents, his case revealed a deep entanglement between the death penalty and North Carolina’s history of segregation and racial terror.”
A judge has yet to rule on Bacote’s RJA case. According to the ACLU, the ruling could have far-reaching consequences for everyone in North Carolina who is facing the death penalty.
Cooper also commuted the sentences of Guy LeGrande, whose defenders said he was mentally ill and had been scheduled for death in 2006 when a judge intervened, according to the Associated Press. Another is Christopher Roseboro, who was convicted of murder and rape in 1992 despite having an intellectual handicap and being represented by incompetent trial counsel, according to his advocates.
North Carolina, which has the sixth largest death row in the United States, has not carried out an execution since 2006 owing to continuing litigation, according to the governor’s office.
Capital penalty remains legal in 27 states, with executions halted in five of them.
Cooper’s clemency order is the largest of its kind in the state. Governors have previously commuted five death sentences in the modern era, according to the NC Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
“This action is lesser than we requested, but it is nevertheless a historic gesture by a North Carolina governor to address the injustice of the death penalty. The 15 men granted mercy today include persons who were subjected to prejudice during their trials, those who were imprisoned under antiquated laws, and those who committed crimes at a young age, among other inequalities, according to Noel Nickle, the coalition’s executive director.
According to the group, 14 of the commutations included persons of color, and 12 were tried prior to 2001 amendments aimed at preventing false convictions.
The announcement comes at the end of a year marked by a string of executions across the United States that provoked widespread controversy, including cases involving inmates who claimed innocence.
