Coalition says death penalty grew from the seed of slavery. They’re working to uproot it.

Editor’s note: A statewide coalition of organizations and individuals committed to ending the death penalty took part in an informational session in Fayetteville recently. That group — the North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (NCCADP) — coordinated with Fayetteville PACT (Police Accountability Community Taskforce) to present the screening of a short documentary film about the history of the death penalty and the problems inherent in the modern death penalty and death penalty trials.

North Carolina still has the death penalty, but the state’s most recent execution was in 2006. CityView spoke with Noel Nickle, the NCCADP’s executive director, about the state of the death penalty in North Carolina, and what the coalition is doing to make changes.

CITYVIEW: Let’s start with a walk-through of N.C.’s death penalty legislation. The death penalty is still in force here, but the last execution in the state was in 2006. What’s important to know about the status of the law as it reads today?

NOEL NICKLE: That’s a great place to start our conversation because while it’s good news that we’ve not had an execution in nearly 18 years in our state, it also means that the death penalty is off the radar for most North Carolinians. 

However, the death penalty is still being pursued by some district attorneys at the trial level and we have the nation’s 5th largest death row. When capital cases do go to trial, fewer juries are rendering death sentences than in the past, but one person was sentenced to death in North Carolina just last year. In terms of the law, there are two litigation issues that have prevented death sentences from being carried out since 2006: Lethal injection litigation and the Racial Justice Act. However, both those issues will eventually resolve, and at that time, it’s likely executions will resume. That is why in December of 2022 we launched a Commutation Campaign calling on Governor Roy Cooper to commute all death sentences to prison terms before he leaves office at the end of this year.

Give us a picture of North Carolina’s death row, and what the world is like for those incarcerated there in a state where capital punishment exists, but hasn’t been used in almost two decades.

Two-thirds of the 136 people living on North Carolina’s death row were sentenced before 2001, when there were significant reforms to our criminal statutes that dictate death penalty investigations and trials. That means the majority of people sentenced to death have lived on death row for decades and recall when people, often their friends, were executed. 

Because it’s a relatively small and insular community, people care for one another, especially for those who are now elderly. More than a third of people on death row are 60 years or older. Everyone’s movement is extremely limited and all visits, even with legal teams, are non-contact with a plexiglass barrier. Since 2016 people sentenced to death have had access to phones and more recently to electronic tablets, both of which allow more contact with family and friends — but both are also very expensive. I could go on about the lack of educational opportunities and medical care, but I invite people to learn about the environment on death row from people who live there. There are several podcasts and books available. Your readers can email me for recommendations.

Your organization, the North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, does work to educate the public about the death penalty. But obviously the main focus is its abolishment. So tell us: Why should the death penalty be ended?

There are many reasons and not every reason will resonate with everyone. 

The death penalty is applied unjustly, particularly with regard to race, and it does not deter murder. In fact, it perpetuates violence. It also is expensive. There are far more effective ways to keep us safe than sentencing people to death, regardless of the crime they have committed. For many people the issue of innocence is reason enough to abolish the death penalty. In North Carolina 12 people have been wrongfully convicted, sentenced to death, and later found to be innocent. Eleven of those were men of color. We’ve executed 43 people since 1984. There are people who claim some of those who were executed were innocent and that there are innocent people on N.C.’s death row now.

Those who favor the death penalty will often say it’s an appropriate form of justice. How should we view the notion of justice when it comes to the kinds of crimes that lead to death penalty cases?

The reality is that we cannot say there are “kinds of crimes” that lead to death penalty cases. Even if you start with homicide, it depends on where the crime is committed. Expanding this conversation beyond N.C., there are 23 states that no longer have the death penalty regardless of how horrific the crime. 

Here in N.C., we have district attorneys who were elected on a platform of not pursuing the death penalty, and we have district attorneys in Wake and Forsyth counties, for example, who consistently seek death sentences disproportionately. The research and data show that other factors — none of which are associated with justice — lead to death sentences. In addition to the geographic disparities, these include the race of the victim, racial composition of the jury, and a myriad of characteristics of the defendant including race, mental illness, age, and socio-economic background. And for people sentenced prior to 2001, the quality of legal representation was often a deciding factor.

NCCADP held a screening of the short film “Racist Roots” in Fayetteville. What’s the message of that film, and what was the response at the event?

We were happy to bring this powerful short film, created by the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, to the Fayetteville community. “Racist Roots” exposes the modern death penalty’s deep entanglement with slavery, lynching and systemic racism. The film includes the voices of advocates, artists, and people on death row. It is specific to North Carolina and we always have panelists following the film who speak to their own experience related to systemic racism and proximity to the death penalty. 

We’ve now screened the film nearly 50 times since its release in 2022. The event in Fayetteville was the eighth of 10 local events across the state we’re hosting the first half of 2024 as part of our Commutation Campaign. The response is always very positive and people are eager to become involved in our work and that was certainly the case in Fayetteville.

The film makes the case that the unlawful, historical practice of lynching in our country is the “mother tree” of the death penalty. What’s important to know about that?

The death penalty was first used in the United States to enforce slavery. Enslaved people could be executed for virtually any reason, including learning to read. After slavery gave way to legal segregation, the death penalty was used to enforce that segregation and the many racial codes that were enshrined into law. Through all these years, the death penalty happened alongside extrajudicial lynchings. It achieved the same aims and, in many cases, was virtually indistinguishable from lynching. Historian and UNC-CH professor Seth Kotch has written extensively about this topic.

When the modern death penalty was created in the 1970s, the U.S. Supreme Court openly stated that the death penalty was needed as a response to public calls for lynching. The court said legal executions would take the place of lynchings. Given that history, it’s no wonder the death penalty continues to produce deeply racist outcomes. 

Still today, death sentences are handed down by overwhelmingly white juries, and are used disproportionately to punish Black and Brown men for crimes against white people. So if you imagine the death penalty as a tree, it grew from the seed of slavery and matured in the years of Jim Crow. Now, it must be uprooted.

Two of the state’s best-known wrongful conviction cases have a connection to Cumberland County. Why is the story of Henry McCollum and Leon Brown so important?

I’m so glad you asked that question because Mr. McCollum and Mr. Brown’s cases illustrate so clearly why we must abolish the death penalty in North Carolina. They were teenagers with intellectual disabilities when they were coerced into confessing to a rape and murder they had absolutely nothing to do with. Not only did they not commit the crime, they were not present and had no knowledge of how it happened. Yet, in 1983, both were sentenced to death. 

Certainly, their race, their intellectual disabilities, and their lack of financial resources were huge contributors to this wrongful conviction. They spent more than 30 years in prison and, while Mr. Brown was eventually resentenced to life without parole, Mr. McCollum remained on death row until they were both exonerated in 2014. At the time of his release, he was North Carolina’s longest-serving death row prisoner and it was only by luck or grace that he was not executed.

Their exoneration only happened because the state’s Innocence Inquiry Commission was able to unearth a single cigarette butt found at the crime scene and conduct DNA testing. The DNA matched a man who had committed another very similar rape and murder in the area. Had that cigarette butt been lost, or if the killer had been a non-smoker, it’s likely that Mr. Brown and Mr. McCollum would still be in prison. Mr. McCollum would still be awaiting his execution. It begs the question: How many other innocent people are still on death row?

What are the problems inherent in the modern death penalty, and death penalty trials?

One key problem is the obvious disparity in whether someone faces a death penalty trial or not simply depending on where the crime was committed. We also continue to see the trial process deeply entangled with racism when you look at jury selection and whether the district attorney chooses to seek death or not. 

What most people don’t know is that the race of the victim is often a determining factor. A case in North Carolina with a white murder victim is twice as likely to end in a death sentence versus a victim of color. Another relevant problem is the cost of death penalty trials. On average it costs North Carolinians an additional $2.16 million for each case resulting in execution versus a case ending in life imprisonment. Just imagine how we could invest that money in our communities to effectively address public safety.

You’ve stated that the core values of the organization are racial justice and restorative justice. Can you illustrate those values for us, and share why they’re central to your work?

In the past, the death penalty abolition movement was often siloed from other social justice issues and efforts. We’re committed not to repeat that mistake, especially when it comes to racial injustice and inequities. We know the death penalty is a modern day iteration of racial terror and lynching, and systemic racism continues to fuel the death penalty. Our commitment to racial justice extends to prioritizing equity, representation, and an analysis of power in all that we do. From the facilitation of meetings to the make-up of our board, we strive to be anti-racist in all aspects of our organization, while acknowledging we are always learning how to improve.

When it comes to restorative justice, it means we’re not only focused on what we don’t want and need, i.e. the death penalty, but we’re also naming what we DO want and need. Restorative justice addresses harm, accountability, and healing in contrast to retributive justice that focuses on punishment and revenge. We envision a justice system that addresses root causes of violence and trauma, rather than perpetuating them.

Lastly, I’ll say we’re also grateful for our 21 Coalition partners that we work with every day. Some of those organizations address the broader issues of racial justice in our criminal punishment system and others engage directly with communities and individuals using restorative justice and practices. Their work enriches ours and we hope vice versa because as long as we have the death penalty our entire criminal punishment system is skewed toward more racism, excessive sentencing, violence, and revenge.

Your work involves what the organization describes as “centering the voices” of those who have been touched by the death penalty, including homicide survivors and those exonerated from death row. Why are their stories important?

That’s a great question. Often people cite those who have lost loved ones to murder as the primary reason we need to have the death penalty. The members of our Family Survivor Engagement Group, which meets monthly, could not disagree more. They say that the existence of the death penalty does not help them heal and that as a state we should invest in other ways to support people who have suffered the effects of violent crime. They believe the death penalty endorses violence and creates more grieving families.

People exonerated from death row speak to the horrific life-changing impact of a wrongful conviction and the reality of living on death row, especially during the time when others were executed. Our death penalty system does everything possible to silence these voices, but family members and exonerees tell us that sharing stories is an important part of their journey toward healing and finding justice. By the way, our “People Most Proximate Page” on the NCCADP website includes several powerful stories from family members and exonerees.

How did you get involved in NCCADP, and why does the work resonate so much with you?

I marched in my first anti-death penalty protest when I was 11 years old in 1976 when the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court. Years later I volunteered with People of Faith Against the Death Penalty, a North Carolina-based organization that is no longer active in our state. Then, from 2006 until 2022, I worked as a mitigation specialist on nearly 40 murder cases in North and South Carolina. 

My opposition to the death penalty started as a faith-based response to an injustice rooted in racism and vengeance; but in the last nearly two decades of truly seeing how the death penalty works in our state, my commitment has expanded far beyond my personal beliefs. With NCCADP, I can shift my focus from individual cases and have a greater impact with a larger reach educating and empowering individuals and organizations to finally help us reach the abolition finish line. I also have come to believe that systemic injustices in our state and our communities will not be eradicated by the institutions we have in place. Instead it’s the work of the people, and that’s what we’re about at NCCADP as a grassroots organization.

North Carolina’s last execution was on Aug. 18, 2006. What does NCCADP have planned for Aug. 18, 2024?

What role and authority does Gov. Cooper have in the death penalty question? And with Cooper’s term soon to end, what urgencies are created?

Ideally, the North Carolina legislature would formally repeal the law allowing capital punishment. However, with the current makeup of our legislature, that outcome is unlikely in the near future. That’s why we are asking the governor to use his power to ensure that death sentences influenced by racism, poverty and other injustices are never carried out. Under the state constitution, the governor has sole authority to commute sentences at his discretion. Commutation does not mean pardoning a crime. It can simply mean reducing a disproportionate sentence, and given the evidence of racism and errors in N.C.’s death penalty, we would argue that all of our state’s death sentences are unjust and disproportionate.

As I mentioned at the beginning of our conversation, we believe that the litigation keeping executions on hold the last almost 18 years will no longer be in place within the next few years. When that happens, it will leave a future governor with the prospect of overseeing dozens of executions. We are asking Gov. Cooper to take leadership now and ensure that North Carolina does not see a dramatic return to executions similar to what we saw at the federal level in 2020. At the end of his term, President Trump allowed 13 federal executions after nearly two decades without one. I also want to add what a traumatic experience we know that would be for our state employees who work in correctional facilities. We know from other states where executions have resumed that there is a tremendous emotional toll on the people whose job it would be to carry out these executions.

How can people find out more about the work you’re doing?

The best way is to visit our website NCCADP.org. There you can sign up for our email list and keep up with our upcoming events, like the one in Raleigh on August 18th. The site is also filled with beautiful photographs, powerful stories, and compelling data.

Kathy Greggs, the co-founder of Fayetteville PACT has joined in the NCCADP’s work, and co-hosted the screening of “Racist Roots.” CityView asked Greggs about that partnership.

GREGGS: Fayetteville Pact believes in ending mass incarceration and to help develop prevention, intervention and rehabilitation programs along with strategies for the carceral system. We believe in assisting those that come out Cumberland County detention to retrieve devices to integrate into society. We are collaborating with NCCADP to provide awareness as well as assistance in stopping the death penalty in N.C. because of the inequalities and poor judgment to those of color. As we continue we will fight to stop the death penalty in North Carolina.

About Noel Nickle: Nickle is deeply committed to the principles and practices of restorative and transformative justice. She has a master’s in social work from UNC-Chapel Hill and lives in Asheville. She can be reached at noel@nccadp.org.

For more information about Fayetteville PACT, go to www.fayettevillepact.com.