Capital Offenses: First Degree Murder (N.C.G.S. 14-17)
Has Life without Parole: Yes
Who Decides Sentence: Jury
Minimum Age to Receive the Death Penalty: 17
Allows Execution of the Mentally Retarded: No. (Definition of Mentally Retarded
is an IQ lower than 70.)
Method of Execution: Lethal Injection (sole method since October 29, 1998)
Clemency Process: Governor has sole authority to grant clemency.
Death Row Location: Raleigh, NC (for both men and women)
Death Penalty Re-established after Furman: June 1, 1977
First Execution after Furman: 1984
Number of Death Row Inmates Exonerated since 1973: Four. Samuel Poole
(1973); Timothy Hennis (1989); Alfred Rivera (1999); Alan Gell (2004).
Number of Offenders on Death Row: 192 (as of March 11, 2004)
Rank of NC within US for Number of Executions Held in 2003: Third (with 7
executions). Texas was first, with 24, and Oklahoma was second, with 14.
Prosecutors in rural counties pursue the death penalty more aggressively: As an example, Mecklenburg County, with more than 600,000 residents, has 10 prisoners
on death row, while the prosecutorial district of Bertie, Northampton and Hertford counties, with a combined population of
about 65,000, has eight death row prisoners.
Effect of Race: In NC, the killer of a white person is 3.5 times more likely
to be sentenced to die.
Percentage of Population Which Supports a Moratorium: 70%
Percentage of Population Which Believes Innocents are on Death Row: 80%
People Executed in 2004: Raymond Dayle Rowsey on January 9, 2004
