When he walked out the door, at that time – North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper commuted the sentences of 15 people on the Tarheel State's death row.
Cooper, a Democrat whose name has been floated as one of the main names of the party for the 2028 presidential contesthe acted in the same way as President-elect Biden – who caught heat last week for issuing sentences for almost all federal death row inmates.
“These trials are among the most difficult decisions a governor can make and the death penalty is the most severe sentence a state can impose,” Cooper said in a statement.
“After thorough consideration, reflection and prayer, I have decided that the death sentence given to these 15 people should be commuted, while ensuring that they will complete the rest of their lives in prison.”
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There have been no homicides in North Carolina since 2006 due to ongoing cases.
One of the prisoners who saw his sentence commuted to life was another massacre prisoner, Hasson Bacote. Bacote had originally filed a lawsuit in 2010 challenging his death sentence under North Carolina's Racial Justice Act — which reportedly allows defendants to challenge convictions if they know of racial bias.
Bacote, who is Black, was convicted of shooting the 18-year-old by a white-majority Johnston County jury.
Rayford Burke, the Iredell County homicide judge who received the change, also reportedly sought relief under the Racial Justice Act, according to WCNC.
Another discount recipient, Christopher Roseboro, served nearly 30 years in prison. In 1994, Roseboro was charged with first-degree rape and other charges stemming from allegations that he and another man rob an elderly neighbor who is later found dead along with evidence that he had been murdered. sexually abused.
A co-defendant, Roger Bell, is already serving a life sentence.
A Union County man, Darrell Strickland, was convicted of murder after a fatal shooting on January 1, 1995. He also had his sentence commuted to life without parole.
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Vincent Wooten, the Pitt County man convicted in the 1993 murder of Edward Wilson, also had his sentence commuted, according to the Greenville Daily Reflector.
Wooten, then 20 years old, saw evidence presented at his trial that said he shot Wilson with a modified AR-15 after he was safe, full of cocaine and money, stolen from Wooten's girlfriend's mother.
Another swing judge, Guy T. LeGrande, was sent to prison after a murder-for-hire incident. LeGrande was later diagnosed with mental illness, according to Mother Jones, and had once claimed to be able to communicate with Oprah Winfrey on television.
Cooper's changes follow a series of orders from Biden redistributing death sentences life without parole for 37 convicts.
“President Biden is committed his mission to reduce violent crime and ensure a fair and effective justice system,” the White House said in a December statement.
“He believes that America must end the use of the death penalty at the federal level, except in cases of terrorism and hate-motivated murder – which is why today's actions apply to all but those cases.”
A man sentenced to death for a 2003 Tennessee shooting said he was shocked Biden has changed the lives of many prisoners.
“I decided not to waste this act of mercy, this grace of life. I decided to be a part of Biden's legacy – in the way I contribute to the development of the community and the prisons,” Rejon Taylor told Newsweek.
“Biden doesn't realize this now, but his act of mercy will resonate with me, bearing fruit that will outlive his time on this earth.”
Some of Biden's other reforms, including in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where a judge installed a “kids-for-cash” prison where children were charged with violence and sent to for-profit prisons, have drawn partisan outrage. .
Cooper's 77 pardons and reversals during his two terms, however, dwarfed the nearly 700 from his fellow Democratic governor. James B. Hunt Jr., who served four terms in two non-consecutive eight-year terms, according to NC Newsline.
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Only three men remain on federal death row after Biden's actions: Robert Gregory Bowers, Dzhokar Anzorovich Tsarnaev and Dylann Storm Roof. Bowers was convicted in the 2018 Pennsylvania synagogue shootings, Roof killed dozens of black churchgoers in South Carolina and Tsarnaev – along with his late brother Tamerlan – were plan to blow up the Boston Marathon.
Then North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat, was sworn into the governor's office to succeed Cooper in Raleigh on Wednesday.