More than a hundred individuals are currently awaiting execution in North Carolina, with some having waited for decades for their sentences to be carried out.

Demographics of North Carolina’s Death Row

North Carolina currently holds 137 individuals on death row, with only two of them being women. The demographic breakdown reveals that 74 are Black, 53 are white, six are American Indian or Alaskan Native, and four are Asian or Asian American.

Geographic Distribution of Death Row Inmates

Forsyth County tops the list with 12 death row inmates, followed by Wake County with 11 and Buncombe County with 7. Surprisingly, there are 44 counties in the state with no death row inmates at all.

Notable Cases on Death Row

Among those awaiting execution, Wayne Alan Laws holds the record for the longest time spent on death row. Convicted of bludgeoning two men to death in 1985, Laws has been awaiting execution for nearly four decades.

Blanche Moore

Blanche Moore, now 89, was convicted in 1990 for poisoning her boyfriend with arsenic. Suspected of multiple arsenic poisonings dating back to 1966, Moore’s case garnered attention from the Oxygen network’s true-crime show Snapped and a made-for-TV movie.

Carlette Parker

Carlette Parker, aged 59, was convicted in 1999 for the kidnapping and murder of an elderly woman. Prosecutors allege that Parker drowned the victim after she discovered Parker stealing money from her.

Shifts in Death Sentences

Statistics show that nearly 100 of the current death row inmates were convicted in a concentrated 10-year period from 1993 to 2002. However, the number of death sentences has significantly declined since the 1990s.

Recent Developments

Joshua Burgess, who was sentenced to death for killing his daughter in 2022, is the only individual on death row from that year. Notably, there are no current inmates from 2021 or 2020.

The last execution in North Carolina occurred in August 2006, and legal challenges have since halted further executions in the state.

For a full list of North Carolina’s death row inmates, refer to the data provided as of Feb. 16.

This comprehensive overview highlights the demographics, notable cases, and shifting trends regarding death row inmates in North Carolina.

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Conclusion: Understanding North Carolina’s Death Row

The list of individuals awaiting execution in North Carolina reflects a complex intersection of demographics, legal processes, and historical context. As the state grapples with ongoing legal challenges and societal shifts, the future of the death penalty remains a topic of significant debate and scrutiny.

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