Pace of executions in N.C. questioned

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By Associated Press

Published: 11/03/2003

North Carolina is on track to execute more death row inmates than in any year since 1949 -- when 10 were put to death -- but there is disagreement over the reason.
Death penalty opponents say the state wants to get executions out of the way before the legislature resumes considering a moratorium in the spring. State officials say it's a coincidence.
Four inmates have been executed so far this year. Two are scheduled to die in November and one in December.
If the year ends with seven executions, it will be the largest number of people put to death in North Carolina since capital punishment resumed in 1977. The highest number so far was five in 2001.
A coalition of people and organizations is pushing the two-year moratorium that would give time to examine whether capital punishment is fairly administered. The group planned a rally last Saturday in front of the governor's mansion and said executions shouldn't continue while the moratorium is being considered.
The state Senate approved the moratorium in April, and the House will consider it when it meets in May.
In a poll conducted last month, 53 percent of voters surveyed opposed the moratorium. Forty percent agreed with it, and 7 percent were unsure.
Moratorium supporter Stephen Dear of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty said the increased number of executions appears planned because "the powers that be are afraid of the moratorium movement."
That's absurd, said District Attorney Jeff Hunt, president of the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys.
He said prosecutors and lawyers in the state Attorney General's Office have no control over the rate of executions.
State officials say this year's peak is due to a number of factors -- and, depending on what the courts do, four more executions could be scheduled soon.
One of those factors was a decision in the case of Henry Lee Hunt. His lawyers won a stay in January while the state Supreme Court decided whether North Carolina's indictment form was constitutional.
All executions were put on hold while the court deliberated. But Hunt's argument was rejected in July, and he was executed Sept. 12.
The next scheduled execution is Nov. 7 for Joseph Timothy Keel, 39, who confessed to killing his father-in-law in Edgecombe County after an argument.
In a clemency hearing this Tuesday with Gov. Mike Easley, attorney Jay Ferguson plans to argue that Keel should be spared because "he has got the educational and functional ability of a fifth-grader."

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