HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 04-23-2013 - 4a 1
ORANGE COUNTY
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT
Meeting Date: April 23, 2013
Action Agenda
Item No. 4-a
SUBJECT: Resolution To Repeal the Death Penalty and Use the Savings To Assist Murder
Victims' Families and Help Prevent Violent Crime
DEPARTMENT: Board of Commissioners PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No
ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT:
Draft Resolution To Repeal the Death Clerk's Office, 245-2130
Penalty and Use the Savings To Assist
Murder Victims' Families and Help
Prevent Violent Crime
PURPOSE: To consider a resolution to call upon the State of North Carolina and the Federal
Government to repeal the death penalty and to use the savings to assist murder victims'
families and help prevent violent crime.
BACKGROUND: At the February 29, 2013 BOCC meeting, Steve Dear, Executive Director of
People of Faith Against the Death Penalty, a non-profit group based in Orange County seeking
to repeal the death penalty, petitioned the Board to consider a resolution to call for the repeal of
the death penalty. Mr. Dear stated that nearly 1,000 businesses, churches and community
groups had passed a resolution similar to the one he provided, including the Town of Chapel
Hill, Town of Carrboro and City of Durham. Mr. Dear noted that Orange County would be the
first county in North Carolina to adopt the resolution, if the Board chose to do so. Mr. Dear also
requested that the Board schedule a future public hearing for community input.
Based on Board protocol, Mr. Dear's petition and request were referred to the Chair, Vice Chair,
and Manager for review and consideration. Based on that discussion, the resolution (with some
formatting and other minor modifications) is presented for Board consideration.
FINANCIAL IMPACT: There is no financial impact associated with consideration of the
resolution.
RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends the Board consider approval of the
resolution, and if approved, authorize the Chair to sign the resolution.
DRAFT FES2013-025
ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS 2
RESOLUTION TO REPEAL THE DEATH PENALTY AND USE THE SAVINGS TO ASSIST
MURDER VICTIMS' FAMILIES AND HELP PREVENT VIOLENT CRIME
WHEREAS, our community upholds the values of fairness and due process for all people; and
WHEREAS, the criminal justice system, including the death penalty, starts at the local level, with local tax
dollars and local employees used to enforce the law; and
WHEREAS, the administration of the death penalty affects all of our community's residents as victims
and victims' family members, as offenders and offenders' family members, and the community at large;
and
WHEREAS, a fair criminal justice system benefits the entire community; and
WHEREAS, more than 140 innocent people in the United States since 1973 have been exonerated and
released from death row after having been wrongfully convicted and spending a combined more than four
centuries on death row (www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-list-those-freed-death-row); and
WHEREAS, North Carolina's death penalty has led to seven innocent people being condemned to die in
the modern era before they were exonerated (www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-and-death-
penalty#inn-st); and
WHEREAS, intentional and systematic racial bias has been shown to have a "persistent, persuasive and
distorting role" in North Carolina's death penalty (North Carolina v. Robinson, 2012; Michigan State
University, 2010; UNC, 2000); and
WHEREAS, less than one percent of murders lead to death sentences and rarely involve "the worst of
the worst" defendants (www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/arbitrariness); and
WHEREAS, states without the death penalty have had consistently lower murder rates
(www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-about-deterrence-and-death-penalty); and
WHEREAS, North Carolina statutes already involve life imprisonment without the possibility of parole as
an alternative to the death penalty; and
WHEREAS, the death penalty in North Carolina annually costs more than 10 million taxpayer dollars per
year more than life imprisonment without parole (Duke University, 2009); and
WHEREAS, millions of North Carolina taxpayers' dollars spent on the death penalty every decade could
be used for crime prevention and programs to offer assistance to murder victims' families;
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED the Orange County Board of Commissioners calls on the
Governor of North Carolina and our Legislators in the N.C. General Assembly, the President of the
United States, and our Representatives and Senators in the United States Congress to adopt policies
and executive orders and to enact legislation repealing the death penalty in North Carolina and in the
federal and military jurisdictions, and to use funds saved to assist murder victims' families and for crime
prevention programs, and to ratify a suspension of all executions until such legislation is enacted into law.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this resolution shall be forwarded by Clerk to the Board of
Commissioners to the Governor of the State of North Carolina; the state Senator and the State
Representatives in the N.C. General Assembly who represent our community; the President of the United
States; the two U.S. Senators from North Carolina; and the Members of the U.S. House of
Representatives representing our community.
This the 23,d day of April 2013.
Barry Jacobs, Chair
Orange County Board of Commissioners