Amid Biden's death penalty commutations, Cooper issues pardons and commutations in NC
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Gov. Roy Cooper commuted the sentences of six people in North Carolina prisons on Monday afternoon and granted pardons to nine others.
In a statement sent by his office, Cooper wrote: "Ensuring careful review of cases while taking executive clemency action is a responsibility I take seriously. We carefully consider recommendations made by the Juvenile Sentence Review Board to commute sentences for crimes committed by minors. All of these individuals are deserving of clemency and we will continue to work to protect our communities and improve the fairness of our criminal justice system."
The cases announced Monday include two individuals whose crimes were committed while they were younger than 18 years old, and three commutations pursuant to the 25-year review process previously enacted by the General Assembly.
Of the nine pardons, in all cases, the crimes were committed more than a dozen years ago, with the earliest instances in 1987 and 1988. In each instance, Cooper cited post-conviction behavior, from educational attainment, professional employment, charitable efforts, and volunteerism as the reasoning behind the decision.
None of the individuals affected Monday were death penalty cases, though Cooper further stated that he plans more clemency announcements before the end of the year.
North Carolina is one of 27 states in which the death penalty is legal, though it has not been carried out since 2006.
"I led the effort in the state House to effectively reinstate the death penalty because it had not been carried out in so long," said Paul Stam, who served 16 years in the Legislature, including a period as Speaker Pro Tempore.
He said he believes that victim's families are often not included in the conversation regarding its usage.
"I have spoken with many of them, and they feel that they get no justice and the wait makes it even worse," said Stam.
Dawn Blagrove with Emancipate NC understands the feelings of the victims' family members who support the death penalty though cited personal experience in expressing her opposition.
"Having the people who hurt my family members or anybody's family members be hurt, or killed does not bring my family member back, is not justice, and does not give me any real comfort," said Blagrove.
Blagrove also noted evidentiary concerns, a point echoed by Brandon Garrett, the Director of the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law.
"There have been 200 people on death row who've been exonerated in this country, including in North Carolina. We've had people exonerated by DNA testing who were sentenced to death in North Carolina. We've seen innocent people on death row here in North Carolina. We've seen it around the country," Garrett said.
Garrett wrote a letter to Cooper earlier this year, urging him to commute the sentences of death row inmates. Blagrove agrees, hoping Cooper takes it a step further, to allow potential new sentences to include the possibility of parole.
"If we believe in the sanctity of life, we have to believe in the sanctity of all life and believe in second chances. And it would be hopeful that (Gov.) Cooper would see that even the people on death row, but not just those people, all people who are incarcerated, should have an opportunity to, at the very least, earn back their freedom," said Blagrove.
Support for the death penalty has dropped sharply during the past three decades, with a Gallup Poll finding just 53% of Americans back its usage, down from 80% in 1994. Breaking those figures down further, a minority of Millennials and Generation Z support it.
There are 136 offenders on the North Carolina death row, though just three such sentences have been handed down in the last five years.
"You can focus more on public safety if you're not spending enormous amounts of money on the death penalty," said Garrett.
Reaction to Biden's Commuting Death Row Sentences
Monday morning, President Biden announced he would commute the sentences of 37 of 40 federal death row inmates to life without the possibility of parole. In a statement, Biden wrote:
"I've dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system.
Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my Administration has imposed on federal executives, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.
Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss.
But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vice President, and now President, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level. In good conscience, I cannot stand back at let a new administration resume executions that I halted."
Three of the 37 individuals whose sentences were commuted are from North Carolina: Aquilia Marcivicci Barnette, Richard Allen Jackson, and Alejandro Enrique Ramirez Umana.
Barnette was sentenced in 1998 for the killing of his ex-girlfriend in Roanoke, Virginia, and killing another man during a carjacking in Charlotte.
Jackson was sentenced in 2001 for the rape and murder of a woman in Pisgah National Forest.
Umana was sentenced for killing two brothers at Greensboro restaurant in 2010, becoming the first MS-13 gang member to be sentenced to death.
The three remaining people on federal death row are Dzhokar Tsarnaev, Robert Bowers, and Dylann Roof, all of whom are responsible for high-profile attacks. That factor was cited in criticism levied by Republican Sen. Tom Cotton on Monday, who wrote on X:
Once again, Democrats side with depraved criminals over their victims, public order, and common decency. Democrats can't even defend Biden's outrageous decision as some kind of principled, across-the-board opposition to the death penalty since he didn't commute the three most politically toxic cases. Democrats are the party of politically convenient justice.
Sen. Thom Tillis. R-NC, also expressed his opposition, writing on X:
What a slap in the face to the families of the innocent victims right before Christmas.
Shame on you, Joe Biden.
"By leaving the three most high-profile cases that he would get less pushback, but the other (37) murderers are just as bad," said Stam.
"While what Biden has done is commendable, what we know for sure is that the death penalty, morally and principally, is wrong, and that is a hard stop. The three people who he left on death row are no more deserving of death than the people that he commuted. However, it is, I think, a reasonable and fair compromise," said Blagrove.
President-elect Donald Trump has publicly voiced his support for the death penalty, including during a speech in Rocky Mount the week before the election.
"I'm hereby calling for the death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement official," Trump said on Oct. 30.
Presidents often issue clemency and pardons as the end of their terms near, though the scale of the move led Garrett to describe Biden's action as "historic."
"The thought is that President Trump, towards the last few months of his presidency, got very aggressive about noticing execution dates. And so that could happen again. Biden may be thinking about that, but I think Biden also wanted to send a message. (He) ran for president, raising concerns about the death penalty and is finally acting on it," said Garrett.
