North Carolina does have the death penalty. It remains authorized by state statute for first-degree murder, and juries continue to impose it. But no one has been executed in the state since August 2006, and a set of unresolved legal disputes has kept executions from moving forward for nearly two decades. Around 123 people are currently on death row.1North Carolina Department of Adult Correction. Death Row Roster
Why No One Has Been Executed Since 2006
The last execution in North Carolina was carried out on August 18, 2006, when Samuel Flippen was put to death for the murder of his two-year-old stepdaughter.2North Carolina Department of Adult Correction. History of Capital Punishment in North Carolina The statute did not change after that. Two overlapping legal problems did.
The first involved doctors. In January 2007, the North Carolina Medical Board adopted a policy warning that any physician who took part in an execution could lose their medical license. State law required medical personnel to be involved in the lethal injection procedure, so the policy created a direct conflict. The North Carolina Supreme Court eventually overruled the Medical Board, but the dispute stalled executions for years and left the protocol in legal limbo.
The second was the Racial Justice Act, passed in 2009. The law let death row inmates challenge their sentences using statistical evidence that race played a significant role in how the death penalty was sought or imposed. Four inmates had their sentences overturned under the RJA before the legislature repealed it in 2013 and tried to apply the repeal retroactively. In 2020, the state Supreme Court struck down the retroactive repeal as a violation of the constitutional ban on ex post facto laws, ruling that inmates who had already filed claims could still pursue them. Many of those cases are still pending in trial courts. If those inmates prevail, their sentences would be reduced to life without parole.
Neither problem has been fully resolved. Prosecutors still charge capital cases, juries still return death verdicts, but no execution date has been set since 2006.
What Crimes Can Bring a Death Sentence
Only first-degree murder can result in a death sentence in North Carolina. Under the state’s murder statute, a killing is first-degree murder in two situations: when it is willful, deliberate, and premeditated, or when it happens during the commission of another dangerous felony such as arson, rape, robbery, kidnapping, or burglary.3North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 14-17 – Murder in the First and Second Degree Defined; Punishment The second category, known as the felony murder rule, does not require proof that the defendant planned to kill anyone. Prosecutors only need to show that a death occurred during the underlying crime.
A first-degree murder conviction does not automatically bring a death sentence. The prosecution has to announce before trial that it intends to seek death. If the state does not seek it, or if the jury declines to impose it, the sentence is life in prison without the possibility of parole.4North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 15A-2000 – Sentence of Death or Life Imprisonment for Capital Felonies
How a Death Sentence Is Imposed
Capital cases in North Carolina are tried in two phases. The first phase decides guilt. If the jury convicts the defendant of first-degree murder and the state is seeking death, the same jury moves to a separate sentencing hearing to decide between death and life without parole.4North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 15A-2000 – Sentence of Death or Life Imprisonment for Capital Felonies
At sentencing, the jury weighs aggravating circumstances against mitigating ones. Aggravating factors come from a fixed statutory list of eleven, and include things like a prior violent felony conviction, killing during another felony, killing for money, an especially cruel killing, creating a great risk of death to multiple people, and killing a law enforcement officer or other public official on duty. Mitigating factors include no significant criminal history, mental or emotional disturbance at the time of the offense, the defendant’s age, minor participation as an accomplice, and duress. The jury can also consider any other circumstance in the evidence that it believes has mitigating value.
To impose death, the jury must find at least one aggravating factor beyond a reasonable doubt, decide that the aggravating factors substantially outweigh the mitigating ones, and vote unanimously. If a single juror holds out, the sentence is life without parole.4North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 15A-2000 – Sentence of Death or Life Imprisonment for Capital Felonies
Who Cannot Be Sentenced to Death
Federal constitutional law takes some defendants off the table regardless of the crime. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that the Eighth Amendment bars executing anyone who was under 18 at the time of the offense.5Justia. Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 North Carolina’s murder statute reflects this by directing that defendants under 18 at the time of the killing face different sentencing rules.3North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 14-17 – Murder in the First and Second Degree Defined; Punishment
The Supreme Court also barred execution of people with intellectual disabilities in 2002, holding it cruel and unusual.6Justia. Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 The Court left states to work out how intellectual disability is determined, but later clarified that rigid IQ cutoffs are not allowed and that courts must consider scientifically valid evidence, including expert testimony and deficits in day-to-day functioning.
How Executions Are Carried Out
Lethal injection is the only authorized method. North Carolina abolished both electrocution and the gas chamber by statute.7North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 15-187 – Death Penalty The execution chamber is at Central Prison in Raleigh, where male death row inmates are housed. Female death row inmates are held at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women, also in Raleigh.8North Carolina Department of Adult Correction. Death Penalty
When an inmate exhausts appeals, the attorney general directs the secretary of the Department of Adult Correction to set an execution date. The inmate is moved to a death watch area next to the chamber three to seven days before the scheduled date. The warden of Central Prison oversees the procedure, and the statute requires qualified personnel to prepare and administer the injection.9North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 15-188 – Manner and Place of Execution Lawmakers have introduced bills in recent sessions to add electrocution and firing squad as alternatives if lethal injection becomes unavailable, but none has become law.
Appeals and Clemency
Every death sentence triggers an automatic appeal to the North Carolina Supreme Court. The defendant does not have to file anything to start it, and the court reviews both the conviction and the sentence.4North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 15A-2000 – Sentence of Death or Life Imprisonment for Capital Felonies The court also runs a proportionality review, comparing the sentence to results in similar cases across the state.
If the direct appeal fails, the defendant can pursue state post-conviction review, raising claims that were not part of the original trial record, such as newly discovered evidence or ineffective assistance of counsel. Once state options are exhausted, the defendant can file a federal habeas corpus petition in U.S. District Court. Courts typically grant stays while these petitions are pending, which is one reason the gap between a death sentence and a possible execution stretches into decades.
The North Carolina Constitution gives the governor sole authority to grant reprieves, commutations, and pardons for all offenses except impeachment. Unlike states that require a recommendation from an advisory board, North Carolina’s governor can commute a death sentence to life in prison independently. In practice, clemency in capital cases has been used sparingly. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977, governors have granted it in only a handful of cases.
Death Row Today
About 123 people are on North Carolina’s death row.1North Carolina Department of Adult Correction. Death Row Roster Many have been there for well over a decade, with appeals and post-conviction proceedings still working through state and federal courts. Racial Justice Act litigation alone affects a large share of them, and resolving those claims one at a time will take years.
The practical result is a state in a legal middle ground. Capital punishment is fully authorized, prosecutors continue to seek it in eligible cases, and juries continue to impose it. The obstacles to actually carrying out an execution, though, remain substantial, and there is no clear timeline for when that might change.