A possible pause in executions in North Carolina for two years brings the promise of reform to some and seems unnecessary to others.
N.C. House Majority Leader Joe Hackney, D-Orange, has sponsored a bill that proposes a moratorium on capital punishment for two years. During this time, the legislature would conduct a study of the state’s death penalty system.
Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, D-Orange, introduced similar legislation in 2003. It passed the Senate but was not brought to a vote in the House.
Rep. Paul Luebke, D-Durham, is confident that the current moratorium bill, which he co-sponsored, will pass. He said that it is a bipartisan effort to give the legislature time to examine the results of the study and to possibly reform the system, and that it doesn’t seek to abolish the death penalty.
“(The bill) recognizes that a majority of North Carolinians want the death penalty but want (it) to be a fair process,” Luebke said. “This bill, with a two-year suspension and study, seeks a middle ground.”
Luebke said he wants reforms such as more competent defense lawyers who would fight for lesser jail time or life without parole. He also said juries are more likely to give the death penalty to minorities — a practice that should be stopped.
David Neal, co-founder and executive director of the Fair Trial Initiative, said he supports the these reforms. In addition, he wants to make sure innocent people, like Alan Gell, stay off death row.
Gell, sentenced to death in 1998, was acquitted of the 1995 murder of Allen Ray Jenkins last year after it was discovered that the prosecution withheld evidence that proved his innocence.
Neal also said that only the worst crimes should receive the harshest punishment.
