Editorial, Winston-Salem Journal

NORTH CAROLINA: Death Penalty Moratorium

North Carolina juries, knowingly or not, are sending a strong signal to the N.C. House to pass the death penalty moratorium this week.

Juries have steadily reduced the number of death sentences over the past 5 years. So far in 2003, only one person has received a death sentence in North Carolina. That is down from 26 in 1999, 18 in 2000, 14 in 2001 and 7 last year, according to reporting done by Freedom Newspapers.

This dramatic drop in death sentences raises two immediate questions: What has changed in the justice system, and how do these changes affect those who are on death row already?

Various sources provided 3 strong reasons for fewer death penalties recently. The General Assembly has both banned the death penalty for the mentally retarded and given district attorneys the authority not to pursue the death penalty in some 1st-degree murder cases.

The 3rd reason should ring like a fire alarm in the House this week as Rep. Paul Luebke, a Durham Democrat, looks for the votes he needs to win moratorium passage. Death sentences are down because indigent defendants are now receiving better legal counsel. Bob Hurley, the state's capital defender, told Freedom papers that a 2-year-old law has improved both the quality of capital case defense counsel and the resources they have to argue their cases. Lawyers appointed to indigent defendants now must be experienced in trying cases before juries and, more specifically, in capital cases.

While the 2001 law and the subsequent drop in death sentences have not been proved as cause and effect, the coincidence of the 2 strongly enhances the case of moratorium proponents. If fewer indigent people are being sent to death row because they are finally getting high-quality legal representation, then the state should revisit the cases of all death row inmates who were indigent and who were assigned inexperienced counsel.

To do anything less would be to ignore the U.S. Supreme Court's dictum that criminal defendants deserve qualified legal counsel. It would also smack of a callous disregard for life and the good name of the American criminal justice system.

A 2-year moratorium, which the state Senate has already approved, would give the state time to conduct an overall study of death penalty administration. It would also give lawyers some time to review the many cases where indigent defendants were served by lawyers not fully prepared for the job.

The drop in death penalties makes clear the very strong imperative that those convicted with less than well-qualified counsel should now have their cases reviewed.

A moratorium will provide the time for those reviews.