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RES-2013-025 4/.. z, 3 , X"o f <br /> ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br /> RESOLUTION TO REPEAL THE DEATH PENALTY AND USE THE SAVINGS TO ASSIST <br /> MURDER VICTIMS' FAMILIES AND HELP PREVENT VIOLENT CRIME <br /> WHEREAS, our community upholds the values of fairness and due process for all people; and <br /> WHEREAS, the criminal justice system, including the death penalty, starts at the local level, with local tax <br /> dollars and local employees used to enforce the law; and <br /> WHEREAS, the administration of the death penalty affects all of our community's residents as victims <br /> and victims' family members, as offenders and offenders' family members, and the community at large; <br /> and <br /> WHEREAS, a fair criminal justice system benefits the entire community; and <br /> WHEREAS, more than 140 innocent people in the United States since 1973 have been exonerated and <br /> released from death row after having been wrongfully convicted and spending a combined more than four <br /> centuries on death row (www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-list-those-freed-death-row); and <br /> WHEREAS, North Carolina's death penalty has led to seven innocent people being condemned to die in <br /> the modern era before they were exonerated (www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-and-death- <br /> penalty#inn-st); and <br /> WHEREAS, intentional and systematic racial bias has been shown to have a "persistent, persuasive and <br /> distorting role" in North Carolina's death penalty (North Carolina v. Robinson, 2012; Michigan State <br /> University, 2010; UNC, 2000); and <br /> WHEREAS, less than one percent of murders lead to death sentences and rarely involve "the worst of <br /> the worst" defendants (www.deathpenaItyinfo.org/arbitrariness); and <br /> WHEREAS, states without the death penalty have had consistently lower murder rates <br /> (www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-about-deterrence-and-death-penalty); and <br /> WHEREAS, North Carolina statutes already involve life imprisonment without the possibility of parole as <br /> an alternative to the death penalty; and <br /> WHEREAS, the death penalty in North Carolina annually costs more than 10 million taxpayer dollars per <br /> year more than life imprisonment without parole (Duke University, 2009); and <br /> WHEREAS, millions of North Carolina taxpayers' dollars spent on the death penalty every decade could <br /> be used for crime prevention and programs to offer assistance to murder victims' families; <br /> NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED the Orange County Board of Commissioners calls on the <br /> Governor of North Carolina and our Legislators in the N.C. General Assembly, the President of the <br /> United States, and our Representatives and Senators in the United States Congress to adopt policies <br /> and executive orders and to enact legislation repealing the death penalty in North Carolina and in the <br /> federal and military jurisdictions, and to use funds saved to assist murder victims' families and for crime <br /> prevention programs, and to ratify a suspension of all executions until such legislation is enacted into law. <br /> BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this resolution shall be forwarded by Clerk to the Board of <br /> Commissioners to the Governor of the State of North Carolina; the state Senator and the State <br /> Representatives in the N.C. General Assembly who represent our community; the President of the United <br /> States; the two U.S. Senators from North Carolina; and the Members of the U.S. House of <br /> Representatives representing our community. <br /> This the 23`d day of April 2013. <br /> arty tJob ; Ch it <br /> Oran u d o ommissioners <br />