Group Seeks stay on Executions in North Carolina
A group recently formed in Edgecombe County wants state lawmakers to place a temporary halt on the death penalty in North Carolina. The group, which has yet to decide on a name for itself, hopes that a moratorium on executions will possibly prevent any innocent people on death row from dying. During the 2003-04 legislation session, the N.C. Senate passed a bill for a moratorium on executions. The Senate sent the bill to the N.C. House, which has yet to take any action on the measure. A moratorium on executions would give the state two years to study the judicial system, said Charmaine Fuller, assistant director of the Carolina Justice Policy Center in Durham. Death penalty trials and appeals would not be suspended during the study, only executions." There are a number of reasons a moratorium needs to be passed by lawmakers, she said. "Racial bias taints North Carolina's capital punishment system," Fuller said. Based on studies by the Carolina Justice Policy Center, a black person is 31/2 times more likely to receive the death penalty if the victim of the crime is white, she said. "Sixty percent of people on death row in North Carolina are African-American," Fuller said. Innocent men have been sentenced to die in North Carolina, Fuller said. [more 
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