North Carolina Governor Grants Clemency to Robert Bacon

     Gov. Mike Easley of North Carolina commuted the death sentence of Robert Bacon to life in prison without parole on October 2.  Bacon was scheduled to be executed on Friday, October 5.  The governor concluded that a life sentence was more "appropriate" in this case.  Bacon's case marks the first time Governor Easley has granted clemency.  (News and Observer, 10/3/01)  Bacon is the 4th North Carolina death row inmate, and the 46th nationwide, to receive clemency since the death penalty was reinstated.  Allegations of racial bias had been raised in Bacon's appeal. 

Easley spares man on N.C. death row

By Anna Griffin , Raleigh Bureau

Gov. Mike Easley, a former prosecutor and a strong believer in the death penalty, spared the life Tuesday of a black man on death row whose white accomplice got life in prison.

 Easley commuted the sentence of Robert Bacon less than three days before his scheduled execution by lethal injection. Bacon, 41, faced death at 2 a.m. Friday for the 1987 stabbing of his lover's husband in Onslow County.

 Instead, he will spend the rest of his life in prison.