Special Report to Blowing Rock News from University News Service. April 13, 2011. BOONE—While North Carolina was once a leading death penalty state, capital punishment has become rare, in part because of an unofficial moratorium on capital punishment in effect for the past five years, pending review of the protocol followed with the lethal injection process. Appalachian State University professor Matthew Robinson thinks it’s time for lawmakers to consider the effectiveness of the state’s capital punishment system as a deterrent to crime as well as its cost.

Robinson, who teaches in Appalachian’s Department of Government and Justice Studies, is the author of “Death Nation: The Experts Explain American Capital Punishment,” “Justice Blind? Ideals and Realities of American Criminal Justice” and other books related to crime and the criminal justice system.

Robinson recently compiled a 57-page report titled “The Death Penalty in North Carolina: A Summary of the Data and Scientific Studies. “The goal was to provide one document that the General Assembly could access if they want to know the facts about the death penalty in North Carolina,” he said of the report. It is available at http://pscj.appstate.edu/ncdeathpenalty/ncdeathpenaltyfinal.pdf.

Robinson will join other scholars to discuss the report at a press conference Monday, April 18, at 11 a.m. at the North Carolina Advocates for Justice building at 1312 Annapolis Dr. in Raleigh, room CLE 1 and 2.

Robinson’s review of some 24 studies or reports includes information about the cost of executions versus life in prison, and public opinion about the death penalty.

In his report Robinson writes, “Death sentences have declined in North Carolina, executions have been halted, murders have declined, and a large majority of state residents support a moratorium on executions. This is an appropriate time to carefully assess the state’s capital punishment system. A fundamental question for policy-makers to consider is this—is capital punishment a necessary practice for North Carolina?”

He said lawmakers should consider if the death penalty meets its goals or providing closure for victims, retribution to society, deterrence from murder, and reduced murder rate. “Is capital punishment something that we believe is a necessary policy. Is it something we need to keep doing,” Robinson asked? “And do the benefits the state and society might realize from death penalty outweigh its costs?”

According to N.C. Department of Corrections data, currently 158 prisoners are on death row. The most recent incarceration was in March, the oldest was in 1985. Since 1977, only 9.9 percent of people sentenced to death in the state have been executed.

According to a report published by Duke University’s School of Public Policy, it costs the state $2.16 million more for a death sentence case than a trial that leads to life in prison or a lengthy prison sentence when considering the cost of a trial, legal defense, appeals and incarceration.  

“We are spending an enormous amount of money for a system we rarely use and that studies show has significant racial biases,” Robinson said.

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