USA - North Carolina. North Carolina finished 2008 with just 1 defendant sentenced to death

North Carolina finished 2008 with just 1 defendant sentenced to death, a record low since the penalty was reinstated 31 years ago. In North Carolina, more people on death row were exonerated in 2008 — 2 — than were sentenced to death. A de facto death penalty moratorium in North Carolina — as the courts, state officials and the medical profession debate the ethics of lethal injections — has prevented anyone from being executed for the past 2 years. 13 juries could have chosen death for defendants. Only 1 in Forsyth County did. On Nov. 20 (see), a jury there gave the death sentence to James Ray Little III. The numbers suggest juries are less likely to impose the ultimate punishment. In 1996, there were 60 capital trials resulting in 34 death sentences in North Carolina. The decline in death sentences is a national trend, but North Carolina's is among the most pronounced.