NC Death Penalty – 2010 Year in Review

Quick Facts

• Executions: 0
• Persons removed from death row for other reasons: 3
• New death sentences: 4
• Capital trials not resulting in death: 9

In Detail

> Persons Removed from Death Row

• Jamey Cheek (New Hanover) – Cheek was re-sentenced to life for a 1996 killing after the court found that the prosecution intentionally withheld evidence favorable to the defense at trial.  This evidence was relevant to whether Cheek was present at the time of the murder.  (Cheek participated in the kidnapping that led up to the killing, which could make him guilty under the felony murder theory.  However, the fact that he was not present during the actual killing would likely have made a difference to the jury for sentencing purposes.)  You can read the court’s order here.
• Abner Nicholson (Wilson) – Nicholson’s death sentence was converted to life after a court determined that he is mentally retarded.  Nicholson was convicted in 1999 of shooting his wife and the local police chief.  You can read the court’s order granting relief here.
• Kyle Berry (New Hanover) – Berry was re-sentenced to life after it was determined that the trial court committed error in refusing to allow his lawyers adequate time to investigate and present evidence of pervasive mental illness in Mr. Berry’s family.  Because the jury did not know the true extent of Mr. Berry’s genetically based mental illness, they did not have all of the information they needed to accurately determine an appropriate sentence for his crime.  The court’s order is here.

> Persons Sentenced to Death at Trial

• Michael Ryan (Gaston) – Fired his attorneys and asked the jury to sentence him to death.  Ryan was convicted based largely on the testimony of a co-defendant who received a lesser sentence in exchange for his cooperation.  The first jury to hear the case deadlocked on the question of guilt; this was Ryan’s second trial.
• Andrew Ramseur (Iredell) – Black defendant sentenced to death by an all-white jury.  Ramseur killed two people during a botched store robbery.  His ability to plan and control his actions was reduced by the combination of a head injury and the unknowing ingestion of a hallucinogenic drug.
• Stephen Buckner (McDowell) – Buckner was sentenced to death for a domestic triple murder.  He is deeply remorseful for his actions.
• Timothy Hartford (Forsyth) – Hartford received one death sentence and one life sentence for a double homicide.  Hartford is severely mentally ill, suffering from both bipolar disorder and PTSD.  He was also addicted to drugs at the time of the crime.  His co-defendant was allowed to plead guilty and avoid the death penalty.

> Persons Given Other Sentences at Trial

• Abdullah Shareef (Cumberland) – jury voted unanimously for life.  Shareef is a paranoid schizophrenic and was held in a mental institution for six years before becoming competent enough to stand trial.  He was convicted of stealing a city van and running down five people, killing one.
• Samuel Cooper (Wake) – jury voted unanimously for life.  Cooper was convicted of killing five people in separate incidents spanning two years.  The jury found that Cooper was mentally damaged as the result of a childhood fraught with extreme abuse.
• Alfred Willard (Mitchell) – pleaded guilty to second degree murder during trial.  Willard killed his live-in girlfriend and tried to conceal her body.
• Carlos Keels (Robeson) – jury voted unanimously for life.  Keels beat his girlfriend’s daughter to death.
• Demeatrius Montgomery (Mecklenburg) – court declared case non-capital after investigating officer was found to have destroyed evidence.  Montgomery was accused of killing two Charlotte police officers who were responding to an unrelated call.
• Travis Ramseur (Iredell) – jury voted unanimously for life.  Ramseur was convicted of killing two men and wounding a third.
• Dexter McRae (Cumberland) – jury voted unanimously for life.  McRae was convicted of raping and murdering his estranged wife, stabbing her more than 50 times.
• Edwardo Wong (Catawba) – sentenced to life after jury could not reach unanimous decision.  Wong was convicted of killing a state trooper during a traffic stop.
• Albert Ramos (Scotland) – pleaded guilty and accepted life sentence during trial.  Ramos killed his mother and stepfather, then fled the state.

Other Significant Events

• Demario Atwater (FED) – In a North Carolina federal court, Atwater received a life sentence for the highly publicized killing of the UNC student body president.
• Alejandro Umana (FED) – Also in an NC federal court, Umana was sentenced to death for a gang-related double murder.
• Timothy Hennis (MIL) – In military court, Hennis was sentenced to death for the same crime for which he was twice tried (once sentenced to death and once acquitted) in civilian court.
• Racial Justice Act – Following last year’s passage of the RJA, pre-trial defendants and death row inmates have filed claims under the law alleging that their death sentences were sought or obtained on the basis of race.  It remains to be seen how the law will ultimately be interpreted by the courts.
• State Bureau of Investigation – A blockbuster investigation by Raleigh’s News and Observer revealed widespread and systemic misconduct at the state agency charged with conducting investigations and forensic testing in criminal cases.  A report commissioned by the Attorney General’s Office identified 269 defendants whose cases were affected by faulty evidence.  (The report looked at one test done by one division of the SBI lab; it found an error rate of nearly 25%.)

New Poll Shows NC Residents Oppose Unfair, Expensive Death Penalty

For Immediate Release: December 13, 2010

For more information contact:

Mark Kleinschmidt, Executive Director   919-260-2488

North Carolinians Don’t Want Executions Under Cloud of Tainted Evidence, Racial Bias and High Cost

More than two-thirds of North Carolinians believe executions should be halted in the wake of the SBI scandal, 58% percent believe a finding of racial bias should prohibit an execution, and more than two-thirds are willing to consider ending the death penalty due to the high cost of capital punishment, a new poll shows.

Public Policy Polling surveyed 517 North Carolina voters between Nov. 19 and Nov. 21. Eighty percent of respondents identified themselves as either moderate or conservative, and half of those surveyed voted for John McCain in 2008.

“This poll showed us that people of all political affiliations have grave concerns about how the death penalty is used in North Carolina,” said Mark Kleinschmidt, executive director of the Fair Trial Initiative in Durham. “We all care about truth, fairness and efficiency in a system that hands down the ultimate punishment.”

Among the key findings were:

●     Sixty-eight percent of people surveyed said executions should be halted until problems with blood tests at the State Bureau of Investigation are fully investigated.

●     Fifty-eight percent said defendants should not be executed if a judge finds that racial bias played a role in their trials.

●     Sixty-four percent of respondents supported replacing the death penalty with life in prison without parole or were not sure whether it was a good idea to continue using the death penalty in light of the more than 11 million dollar per year extra cost of the death penalty.

The poll came in the wake of two major events that have cast doubts on the fairness of the death penalty in North Carolina.

This summer, an audit showed that the State Bureau of Investigation, whose lab processes physical evidence for virtually every trial in North Carolina, had withheld or misrepresented the results of blood tests that would have been favorable to the defendants in more than 200 cases.

In three of those cases, the defendants had already been executed, and four more are on death row. The state is looking at ways to reform the lab’s practices, but few concrete changes have been made and none of the tainted cases has been fully investigated.

“The voters clearly told us that they do not want people to be executed unless we can be absolutely sure that they got a fair trial,” said Kleinschmidt. “Right now, there are just too many questions hanging over our capital punishment system.”

Also this summer, a comprehensive study revealed that racial bias still taints capital trials.

The study, by researchers at Michigan State University School of Law, showed that those convicted of killing white victims are almost three times as likely to get a death sentence as those who kill minorities. The study also found that black jurors are being disproportionately excluded from capital juries.

About 150 inmates have filed claims under the N.C. Racial Justice Act, passed in 2009 to root out racial bias in capital trials. Death row inmates who can prove bias before a judge will have their sentences converted to life in prison without parole.

“People want a fair justice system,” Kleinschmidt said. “People want a justice system that is colorblind.”

Many of those polled said they were not sure the millions the state spends every year on defending capital cases is worth it — especially in a time of crippling economic woes.

Duke University Professor Philip Cook found in a 2009 study that defense in capital cases costs the state $11 million each year. The study did not take into account the costs of judges, prosecutors, police, investigators and courtroom personnel used in capital trials — so the actual cost of the death penalty is likely much higher.

“We are in the midst of an economic crisis,” Kleinschmidt said. “With false evidence and clear racial bias in death penalty trials, how can we justify the costs of such a flawed policy?”

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The Fair Trial Initiative is a non-profit agency that works to ensure that capital defendants get fair trials by training and providing resources to criminal defenders who work on death penalty cases. Based in Durham, it was founded in 2001 by four law students.

Last Capital Trials of 2010 End

In Forsyth County, Timothy Hartford has been sentenced to death.  He was convicted of a 2008 double homicide known locally as the Meals-on-Wheels killings.

Meanwhile in Scotland County, after starting jury selection over three times due to various problems, the trial of Albert Ramos ended when he entered a plea of guilty in exchange for a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.  Ramos shot and killed his mother and stepfather over drugs and then fled the state.

Executions – December 2010

1 – Steven Staley (TX – stayed)

7 – Billy Irick (TN – stayed)

16 – John David Duty (OK)