Henry MCCollum still dreams about death row at Central Prison, where he spent half his life for a crime that he didn’t commit.
McCollum and his brother Leon Brown were exonerated in 2014 after spending nearly 31 years in prison for the wrongful conviction for rape and murder, The News & Observer previously reported. On Saturday, McCollum joined death penalty opponents to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the last time that North Carolina executed a prisoner.
“They stole me and my little brother’s life away from us,” McCollum, 61, said at Saturday’s event organized by the N.C. Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. “I just thank God that me and my brother are free.”
The advocacy group met at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh before about 50 people marched to Central Prison, which houses the state’s death row inmates.
Nineteen years since last state execution
Between 1984 and 2006, North Carolina executed 43 people.
The last execution was on Aug. 18, 2006, when Samuel Flippen, 36, was executed by lethal injection for the murder of his 2-year-old stepdaughter, The N&O previously reported.
There’s been a de facto moratorium since then as inmates have challenged the constitutionality of the use of lethal injection. More than 100 of the 121 people currently on death row are challenging their death sentences with claims of racial bias during jury selection or sentencing in their trials.
On his final day in office in December, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper issued clemency to 15 people on death row. The N&O previously reported. Death-penalty opponents are urging Democratic Gov. Josh Stein to grant clemency to the 121 remaining death row inmates.
“We are here to remember 43 lives that were taken by the state,” said Noel Nickel, executive director of the N.C. Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. “We are here to resist any more lives ever being taken.”
Death by electrocution or firing squad?
Some Republican state lawmakers hope to resurrect the use of the death penalty.
Legislation filed earlier this year by state Rep. David Willis would allow electrocution and the firing squad to be used as alternative methods of execution. This would be an effort to get around the legal challenges over use of lethal injection.
“It’s not something that’s used every single day, obviously, but I think our (district attorneys) and our courts need to have this option on the table to combat some of the heinous crimes and murders and things that we’re seeing,” Willis,a Union County Republican, told The N&O earlier this year. “And as a tool in their belt, to at least have as a possibility, I think, goes a long way, and helps our prosecutors in that regard.”
The bill didn’t advance this session but could be revived if legislative leaders want to do so.
“The law is the law, and our law, as it has for a long time, allows the death penalty in North Carolina, and I think that when a jury decides something, that the will of that jury ought to be carried out,” House Speaker Destin Hall told The N&O earlier this year.
‘We live death row every day’
Three former North Carolina death row inmates met Saturday for the first time since they were exonerated of their murder convictions. They’ve now taken on the mission of sharing their stories and fighting to save the lives of the death row inmates who became their families at Central Prison.
“I’m against capital punishment,” McCollum said. “Like I told them brothers on the row when I left them there Sept. 4 of 2014, I said, ‘Hey, I love y’all and all that. I will keep fighting as long as God gives breath to my body.’”
Alfred Rivera spent nearly two years on death row in the 1990s before being exonerated of murder charges. He said they need to be the ones who speak out against the death penalty.
“We were not supposed to be there and we witnessed it and returned back with the grace of the all or the most high or the high self, or whatever it is you have the faith in,” Rivera said. “It brought us to this point.”
Ed Chapman spent 13 years on death row after being wrongfully convicted of murdering two women in Hickory in 1994, The N&O previously reported. It’s been nearly 18 years since Chapman was released, but “I fight every day to keep my sanity,” Chapman said.
“We live death row every day,” Chapman said. “It’s not a one-day thing. It’s every day.”
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