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<br />"[The] insightful dialogue by legislators, lawyers, and professors [held at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1998 and contained in the book
<br />~iccst in the Much: The Death Penalty in North Carolina] amply justifies the American Bar Association's call for a moratorium
<br />;,n the death penalty in North Carolina. It is simply not fair and it doesn't even work." -Dean Smith, Coach Emeritus, UNC-CH
<br />"I think a moratorium is... appropriate.... I am not an absolutist on the death penalty, but I believe the way it's being applied is
<br />often very uncertain and very unfair and not to mention racist and hits people who are poor."
<br />- Allen Spault, Carrboro Board of Aldermen
<br />"Regardless of whether you think the death penalty acts as a deterrent or not, which I don't think it does, since the risk of
<br />human error is so great I really appreciate what (moratorium proponents) are doing."
<br />- 7acqueline Gist, Carrboro Board of Aldermen
<br />"I support wholeheartedly the ... call for a moratorium on the death penalty.... First, although the penalty is occasionally
<br />`deserved,' it is unevenly, even whimsically, applied. Second, when it is mistakenly imposed upon an innocent person, the miscar-
<br />riage has no possibility of cure or amelioration." -Paul Hardin, Chancellor Emeritus, UNC -Chapel Hill
<br />"The death penalty discriminates against poor people, non-white people, and all those who do not have the resources or
<br />understanding to demand their proper rights under existing law.... It doesn't even work." -Lee Smith, Author, Hillsborough
<br />"In spite of our courts and our legislature [trying to] eliminate arbitrariness,, if you're a person of means in this state you
<br />simply will not be sentenced to death no matter what you do.... The death penalty is reserved for the poor... (and) most of the time
<br />it is reserved for people who are not from the community in which they are tried.... Because they are not of the community it's
<br />very easy to pass them as inhuman, something other than human, not one of us."
<br />-Marshall Dayan, Attorney, Schley, N.C. (Orange County)
<br />"I have many problems with the death penalty: the finality of inevitable mistakes, the often unfair administration of justice,
<br />the uneven access to legal expertise...." -Christopher C. Fordham, III, Chancellor Emeritus, UNC-Chapel Hill
<br />"We're proud that our two home communities have the courage... to stand up against injustice. We're also proud that a
<br />Chapel-Hill-based group, People of Faith Against the Death Penalty, is leading the moratorium effort in this state. Roses... to State
<br />Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, who introduced moratorium legislation in the Senate." -The Chapel Hill News (June 18, 1999)
<br />"Whether we have a death penalty or not should depend on the informed citizen's judgment rather than the citizenry that's in
<br />the dark about it, a citizenry that has capital punishment that is exercised at two in the morning and run in margins and in the
<br />hallways of the court house in the dark shadows. Given the principles of our nation, held by people who feel strongly in favor of
<br />capital punishment, this system is indecent. This system is unacceptable." = Lou Bilionis, Professor of Law, UNC-Chapel Hill
<br />"The [former N.C. Supreme Court] Chief Justice [James Exum] said he spent 70 percent of the court's time on the death
<br />penalty, riot because they thought it was worth 70 percent of the time but because other people who don't have to carry out the
<br />policies have brought it forward. The death penalty has had a terrible distorting effect on our courts and on the practice of law in
<br />North Carolina both, and that's something you .don't hear tallced about very much. I think it's really been quite destructive, and
<br />continues to be." -Malcolm Ray "Tye" Hunter, Appellate Defender for the State of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
<br />"(The death penalty) remains arbitrary.... this jury says `yes,' this jury says `no.' It is still, even at its best, a crap shoot."
<br />-Adam Stein, Attorney, Chapel Hill
<br />"We've had [27] years now since... Furman in '72.... The burden of proof ought to shift to those who think capital punish-
<br />ment is needed, is useful. Has it really been? Are we really more safe, more just? Have we had a decrease in the rate of criminal
<br />homicide that's not tied to the demographics of the population?"
<br />- Jack Boger, Professor of Law and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
<br />"Halt state executions; the system is flawed... The system is flawed because the system is us. We're the jurors. We're the
<br />judges. We're the prosecutors and defense attorneys. All of us are fallible, liable to be blinded sometimes by prejudice or presump-
<br />tion. We get tired. We cut corners. We get things wrong. And when the penalty is death, there is no acceptable error rate. One
<br />innocent man killed is too many." -News & Record, Greensboro (May 22, 1999)
<br />"The General Assembly ought to approve (Sen. Kinnaird's bill to declare a moratorium on executions) and send it to Gov.
<br />Hunt with dispatch. The issue here is essentially about the fairness in the administration of the death penalty.... One can't help
<br />wondering... how many other innocents remain on death row or have been executed.... The criminal justice system, developed and
<br />administered by human beings, is inevitably imperfect.... A moratorium on the death penalty is a good idea."
<br />,, -Winston-Salem Journal (May 23, 1999)
<br />"The moratorium idea is a very important idea....[I]t's important that N.C. take a stand on it, and I hope the stand will be
<br />favorable, and that the Congress of the [U.S.] does that also." -Hon. Harry Martin, N.C. Supreme Court Justice Emeritus
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