Durham speaks out for the end of the death penalty

In February of 1944, Andrew W. Farrell was executed in Durham County.

A chart from the North Carolina Department of Public Safety provides a one word description of his crime: rape.

Since Farrell, no one has been put to death in Durham County, and the Durham City Council wants it to stay that way.

On Thursday, Durham became the largest city in North Carolina to pass a resolution to repeal the death penalty.

It calls for North Carolina, as well as the federal government and the U.S. military, to end the practice of executing convicted criminals.

Both Chapel Hill and Carrboro passed the same resolution — written by People of Faith Against the Death Penalty — in June.

Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt, who formerly worked as a death penalty lawyer, said town residents have been receptive to the resolution.

“I’ve been a capital defense attorney for my entire legal career and I’m glad to live in a community that sees the problems with the institution of the death penalty,” Kleinschmidt said.

He said he sees the move by Chapel Hill, Durham and Carrboro as being part of a statewide trend away from the death penalty.

“Fifteen years ago we were putting one person a week on death row; now we’re not even trying,” he said.

“North Carolina juries are saying that the death penalty is not an option that’s meeting the needs of our communities.”

North Carolina has not carried out an execution since 2006, when Samuel R. Flippen was put to death by lethal injection in Forsyth County.

Though there are currently 155 inmates on death row, most have been awaiting execution since the 1990s.

During the last several years, challenges to applying the death penalty in North Carolina have led to a de facto moratorium on the practice.

Ongoing disputes have made death penalty sentences less common. Such disputes have included conflicts surrounding the N.C. Medical Board’s stance against allowing physicians to participate in lethal injections and the state’s controversial Racial Justice Act.

The Racial Justice Act — which allows death row inmates to appeal their sentences on the grounds of racial bias — was upheld in June after Gov. Bev Perdue vetoed a bill to repeal it.

Though the moratorium has kept the state from carrying out an execution in recent years, Amanda Lattanzio of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty said full repeal is the only moral option for the state.

“We see the death penalty as racist, classist and sexist,” said Lattanzio, who is the community organizer for the group.

“It condones government violence and murder and takes resources away from victims’ families,” she said.

Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton agreed.

“It costs all of us a lot in state taxes, but it’s also a question of justice,” Chilton said.

“The death penalty is not very evenly applied by courts across the nation, and in North Carolina in particular.”

Echoing Chilton’s concerns, Kleinschmidt said he hopes the actions of the Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Durham governments spark similar initiatives across the state.

He said he was thrilled when he heard last week that Durham had passed the resolution.

“I used to practice in Durham,” he said. “Like Chapel Hill, it’s a very thoughtful community.”

Kleinschmidt added that he hopes more humane and economical alternatives to the death penalty can become the norm in North Carolina.

“I think we have other, more effective ways of marshaling our limited resources,” he said.

Contact the desk editor at city@dailytarheel.com.