Failed TN execution draws attention to 122 people on Death Row in NC

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The failed execution of a Tennessee woman is putting capital punishment in the spotlight across the country. Current records show there are 122 people on death row in North Carolina.

The North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty believes capital punishment is unfair and immoral. Noel Nickle is the executive director for the organization. She says the botched execution proves that the practice is inhumane.

“It’s horrific. It was sadly predictable and avoidable,” Nickle said. “Here in North Carolina, it certainly holds lessons for us and just reinforces that we must never resume executions in our state.”

In Tennessee, 50-year-old Christa Pike survived two doses of lethal injection drug. A week after the attempts, Pike was talking and walking. The Governor of Tennessee ordered an investigation into what went wrong.

In Mecklenburg County, NC the district attorney is seeking the death penalty against Tonya McKnight. McKnight is accused in the death of six-year-old Dominique Moody, who was found unresponsive in an East Charlotte home in 2025, living in feces and severely underweight.

The last time North Carolina executed anyone was in 2006 using lethal injection.

“If someone is engaged in that awful of violent behavior, the threat of the death penalty is not going to deter that. Our death penalty in North Carolina is steeped in systemic racism, and, we can’t fix that,” Nickle said.

Another Charlotte case, the stabbing death of Iryna Zarutska also had an impact on the death penalty. In 2025, North Carolina lawmakers voted to expand options for the death penalty to include electrocution and firing squad as a part of Iryna’s Law.

“Those lawmakers who are seeking to resume executions, we can expect that it would have as disastrous results as what we have seen in Tennessee with this execution that failed, with botched executions using the firing squad in South Carolina,” Nickle said.

Saturday, October 10th is World Day Against The Death Penalty. NCCADP is hosting an online event called Stories for Life, Across the Divide, a virtual conversation with four people whose lives have been changed by violence and capital punishment.