NC district attorney: Biden’s commutations should guide us to end death penalty | Opinion

On Monday, President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life in prison without parole. Biden explained that he’s devoted his career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system. The famed civil rights champion Bryan Stevenson said that Biden’s decision sends “a strong message to Americans that the death penalty is not the answer to our country’s concerns about public safety.”

As a career prosecutor, I could not agree more. With North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s term drawing to a close, I hope he will guide our state toward more humane and effective approaches to keeping communities safe.

In my role as prosecutor, I have had to make the wrenching choice between pursuing the death of individuals accused of horrific crimes or pursuing permanent imprisonment. I understand how difficult a decision this is, especially in the wake of enormous tragedy and suffering. When I ran for district attorney of Chatham and Orange counties in 2022 after working as a prosecutor for 16 years, I pledged to never seek the death penalty if elected.

I have seen the death penalty’s deep flaws firsthand. It is an irreversible punishment that has been used disproportionately based on the race of the victims and defendants. I have also seen how even the most diligent public servants, in rare instances, make mistakes that can result in the wrongful conviction of innocent people, an unacceptable outcome when a life is on the line.

I became keenly aware that the death penalty does not serve victims or our communities. The capital punishment process locks victims and families into a decades-long cycle of uncertainty, forcing many to relive trauma as they wait for an execution that is not likely to occur. North Carolina hasn’t carried out an execution in more than 18 years. Individuals on death row are more likely to have their sentences reversed due to serious legal errors or die of old age before ever being executed.

These problems can be avoided by seeking long prison terms or life in prison without parole. Doing so frees up resources that can be used to support victims of crime and allows for investment in programs that have a proven track record of reducing crime. I have sat and cried with far too many grieving victims and families. Instead of plunging them into an uncertain and often unending legal process, we need to focus our resources on giving them what they need to heal.

We should also consider that many people on North Carolina’s death row have been there for decades and would never be sentenced to die if they were tried today. Our state’s death row is filled with people with mental illness and brain impairments. Too often, those sentenced to death were children who grew up in horrible poverty and abusive homes. Many committed their capital crimes when they were teenagers or in their early 20s, a time of life when the brain is still immature.

North Carolina is the only state that has ever banned prosecutors from taking these mitigating factors into consideration. Under a state law that was in effect until 2001, district attorneys were required to seek a death sentence in every aggravated murder case, regardless of the defendant’s background. Well over half of the individuals currently on death row were sentenced before the state abolished this ill-advised policy.

I decided I will not seek capital punishment during my tenure because I believe that executing human beings is cruel and an ineffective, costly and error-prone way of combating crime. It does nothing to make our communities safer, all the while diminishing our moral fiber as a society.

President Biden understands this. Civil rights leaders like Bryan Stevenson understand it. I urge North Carolina’s district attorneys, the legislature and the governor’s office to move our criminal justice system away from one that litigates, imposes and carries out executions in our state.

Jeff Nieman was elected district attorney for Chatham and Orange counties in 2022, and has served as a state prosecutor for the past 18 years.