The administration of the death penalty in North Carolina dates back to Colonial America. English Common Law and legislation enacted by North Carolina's Colonial Assembly governed the administration of capital punishment.
All of those currently awaiting execution in North Carolina were convicted and sentenced under the state's revised capital punishment law which became effective June 1, 1977. The revised law restored the death penalty for first degree murder, which is defined as willful, deliberate and premeditated killing or killing while committing another felony. In 1983, the General Assembly gave death row inmates the option to choose death by lethal injection. In 1998, the General Assembly eliminated execution by lethal gas, making lethal injection the state's only method of execution |
