Two former inmates, who have now been exonerated, spoke to a gathering of people in the Sandhills area of North Carolina about the urgent need for a moratorium on executions in North Carolina (one man was on death row, the other escaped a death sentence by one juror vote). The two men discussed the many inconsistencies in the application of the death penalty in North Carolina and the serious issues raised by the exoneration of innocent victims who were previously on death row awaiting execution for crimes they did not commit.

Two quoted statistics stuck out to me in particular:

1) One of the men cited a statistic (the article does not say from where) that for every seven prisoners executed there is one on death row who is innocent. That's a pretty high percentage.

2) The former death row inmate's appellate counsel noted that "More than 17 percent of the prisoners on death row [in North Carolina] were represented by attorneys that have been disciplined by the state bar." (again, the source was not cited)

North Carolina Community Debates Need for Moratorium