Yes, North Carolina has the death penalty. First-degree murder is the only crime that can carry a death sentence, and roughly 123 people are currently on death row.1North Carolina Department of Adult Correction. Death Row Roster In practice, though, the state has not executed anyone since August 2006. The statute is still on the books and juries still impose death sentences, but a tangle of legal disputes has stopped executions from actually going forward for nearly two decades.
Why No One Has Been Executed Since 2006
The last person put to death in North Carolina was Samuel Flippen, executed on August 18, 2006.2North Carolina Department of Adult Correction. History of Capital Punishment in North Carolina Since then, two separate legal problems have combined to create what amounts to a moratorium.
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 license. State law requires medical personnel to be involved in the lethal injection process, so the policy created a direct conflict with the protocol. The North Carolina Supreme Court eventually overruled the Medical Board, but the fight left the state’s execution procedure in legal limbo for years.
The second obstacle is the Racial Justice Act, passed in 2009. The RJA let death row inmates challenge their sentences with 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 Four inmates had their sentences overturned under the law before the legislature repealed it in 2013 and tried to make the repeal retroactive. In 2020, the North Carolina Supreme Court struck down the retroactive repeal as an unconstitutional ex post facto law, meaning inmates who had already filed claims could still pursue them. Many of those cases were sent back to trial courts and remain unresolved. If a defendant wins, the sentence drops to life without parole.
New death sentences are still being handed down. No execution date has been scheduled.
Which Crimes Qualify
Only first-degree murder is eligible for a death sentence. Under state law, a killing is first-degree murder if it was willful, deliberate, and premeditated, or if it happened 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 That second route is the felony murder rule, and it does not require the state to prove the defendant planned to kill anyone. It only requires that someone died during the underlying crime.
A first-degree murder conviction does not automatically mean 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 trials in North Carolina happen 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 then holds a separate sentencing hearing to choose 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 the sentencing phase, the jury weighs aggravating circumstances against mitigating ones. The statute lists eleven possible aggravating factors, including a prior violent felony, a killing committed during another serious felony, murder for financial gain, an especially heinous or cruel killing, creating a great risk of death to more than one person, and killing a law enforcement officer, judge, prosecutor, juror, or witness performing official duties.4North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 15A-2000 – Sentence of Death or Life Imprisonment for Capital Felonies At least one aggravator must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
Mitigating circumstances cover reasons to spare the defendant’s life, such as no significant criminal history, mental or emotional disturbance at the time of the crime, the defendant’s age, a minor role as an accomplice, or acting under duress. The jury can also consider any other circumstance from the evidence that it believes has mitigating value, so the defense is not boxed in by the statutory list.
The jury must then find that the aggravating factors substantially outweigh the mitigating ones before it can recommend death. And every juror has to agree. If a single juror holds out, the sentence is life without parole.
Who Cannot Be Sentenced to Death
Federal constitutional law puts two groups off-limits regardless of the crime. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that the Eighth Amendment forbids 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 the same cutoff, routing defendants who were under 18 at the time of the killing to 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 the execution of people with intellectual disabilities in 2002.6Justia. Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 States set their own procedures for determining intellectual disability, but the Court has since made clear that rigid IQ cutoffs are not allowed and that courts must consider scientifically valid evidence, including expert testimony and evidence of deficits in everyday functioning.
How Executions Would Be Carried Out
Lethal injection is the only authorized method of execution. 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 appeals are fully exhausted, the attorney general directs the secretary of the Department of Adult Correction to set an execution date, and the warden of Central Prison oversees the procedure.9North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Manner and Place of Execution Lawmakers have in recent sessions introduced bills to add electrocution and firing squad as backup methods if lethal injection drugs become unavailable or the current protocol is struck down, but none of those have changed the law.
The Appeals That Run Before Any Execution
Every death sentence triggers an automatic appeal to the North Carolina Supreme Court. The defendant does not have to file anything to start it. The court reviews both the conviction and the sentence and must finish the review within 24 months unless the Chief Justice finds extraordinary circumstances for a delay.4North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 15A-2000 – Sentence of Death or Life Imprisonment for Capital Felonies It also conducts a proportionality review, comparing the sentence to outcomes in similar cases statewide.
If the direct appeal fails, the defendant can pursue state post-conviction review on claims that were not part of the trial record, such as newly discovered evidence or ineffective assistance of counsel. After state options run out, a federal habeas corpus petition can be filed in U.S. District Court arguing that the conviction or sentence violates the federal Constitution. Courts typically grant stays while these petitions are pending. That stacking of reviews is a large part of why decades can pass between a death sentence and any possible execution date.
The Governor’s Role
The North Carolina Constitution gives the governor sole authority to grant reprieves, commutations, and pardons for all offenses except impeachment. Unlike many states, North Carolina does not require a recommendation from an advisory board, so the governor can commute a death sentence to life in prison independently. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977, that power has been used in capital cases only a handful of times.
Where Things Stand
North Carolina sits in a legal middle ground. Capital punishment is fully authorized, prosecutors still seek it in eligible cases, and juries still impose it. But the barriers to actually carrying out an execution are substantial enough that nearly 20 years have passed without one, and no clear timeline exists for when that might change. The Racial Justice Act claims alone affect a significant share of death row and will take years to resolve one case at a time.