North Carolina Senate
leaders filed legislation Wednesday to restart the death penalty in the
state – a move to secure justice for more than 100 North Carolina
families whose loved ones were brutally murdered.
Despite having 152
inmates on death row, the state has not conducted an execution since
2006 because of numerous legal challenges that have resulted in a
de-facto moratorium on the death penalty.
Our bill,
Senate Bill 306, allows doctors, nurses, and pharmacists to
participate in executions without fear of punishment from licensing
boards, brings certainty to the timeline of the execution process, and
gives the Secretary of Public Safety flexibility to develop
the most humane and constitutionally-sound method possible to conduct
execution by lethal injection.
The bill also repeals a
law allowing judges to use arbitrary statistics and random data to
decide whether death row inmates were sentenced because of race. The law
has allowed nearly every criminal on death row,
regardless of race, to file an appeal. The bill reaffirms several
avenues of appeal that are still available to ensure a fair hearing of
race discrimination claims in capital cases.
We have a moral
obligation to ensure death-row criminals convicted of the most heinous
crimes imaginable finally face justice. Victims’ families have suffered
for far too long. It’s time to stop the legal wrangling
and bring them the peace and closure they deserve.
Senator Phil Berger
President Pro Tempore
2008
Legislative
Building
Raleigh,
NC 27601-2808
Phone: 919.733.5708
Fax: 919.754.3246
philbe@ncleg.net
No comments:
Post a Comment