RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — A North Carolina organization walked 136 miles across the state as they called for Gov. Roy Cooper to commute death sentences to prison terms.
Participants with the NC Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty began the walk at the Forsyth County Courthouse in Winston-Salem on Sept. 26. The walk concluded Thursday in Raleigh.
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The 136 miles were meant to symbolize the number of inmates on death row in North Carolina.
“We have the fifth-largest death row in the nation,” said coalition director Noel Nickle, who noted the state’s largest death row populations are in Forsyth and Wake counties.
Along the route, participants remembered North Carolina residents who had been freed from death row after proving their innocence.
“I was thinking of the 12 people wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death for more than a total of 150 years,” Nickle said. “The 12 were exonerated and 11 of them were men of color.”