Outgoing N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper commutes 15 death row sentences : NPR

RALEIGH, N.C. — In one of his final acts in office, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on Tuesday commuted the death sentences of 15 men convicted of murder to life in prison without parole, ending the death penalty in the state. Reduced the prisoner population by more than 10%.

Mr. Cooper is barred from winning a third consecutive term and will make way for fellow Democrat Josh Stein when Mr. Stein takes the oath of office on Wednesday.

Cooper, who previously served as attorney general for 16 years, said the decision to commute the sentence was made after a thorough review of the defendants’ petitions and input from prosecutors and the victim’s family.

As of Tuesday, North Carolina had 136 death row inmates. Cooper’s office said it had received clemency petitions from 89 of them.

“These reviews are among the most difficult decisions a governor can make, and the death penalty is the most severe sentence a state can impose,” Cooper said in a news release. “After thorough consideration, reflection, and prayer, I have concluded that the death penalty imposed on these 15 people should be commuted, while also ensuring that they spend the rest of their lives in prison. reached.”

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, North Carolina is one of 27 states that have the death penalty as a criminal penalty, but five of those states currently have executions on hold. North Carolina is not among these five states, but the state has not carried out an execution since 2006.

The number of defendants sentenced to death has also declined in recent years as state law gives prosecutors more discretion in deciding whether to try capital cases. Even after Tuesday’s action, North Carolina still has the fifth-highest death row population in the nation, according to the North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

Some anti-death penalty groups are calling on Cooper to completely commute the sentences of all inmates on death row, but they are still praising him for what they call a historic act of clemency. State Adult Corrections Department records list 13 of the 15 pardoned individuals as black. The dates of the 15 convictions ranged from 1993 to 2011.

Cooper gained national attention earlier this year when he emerged as Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ running mate.

Chantal Stevens, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, said in a separate release that Cooper “joins a group of courageous leaders who have used their executive powers to address botched executions.” Ta. “We have long known that North Carolina’s death penalty is racially biased, unjust and immoral, and the governor’s actions today pave the way for the state to move toward a new era of justice. .”

Among the 15 people whose sentences were commuted Tuesday was Hasson Bacote, who was convicted of first-degree murder in Johnston County in 2009.

Bacote is challenging his death sentence under the 2009 Racial Justice Act, which allows inmates to receive life in prison without parole if they can prove racial bias was the reason for their death sentence. Ta. The law was repealed in 2013, but the state Supreme Court ruled that the law can still apply retroactively to most people currently on death row. Mr. Bacote’s trial before a judge under the Act was considered a test case.

Another inmate whose sentence was commuted was Guy Legrande, who was once scheduled to be executed in late 2006 before a judge temporarily halted the case. He was convicted in 1993 in Stanly County of murdering a woman whose estranged husband had offered to pay a portion of her life insurance policy. LeGrande’s lawyer said he suffered from a mental illness.

Another pardoned death row inmate, Christopher Roseboro, was convicted of murder and rape in the 1992 death of a 72-year-old Gastonia woman.

President Joe Biden announced last week that the sentences of 37 of the 40 federal death row inmates would be commuted to life sentences.