North Carolina's Death Penalty and Death Row Facts

The last person executed in North Carolina was Samuel Flippen, put to death Aug. 18, 2006, for the murder of his 2-year-old stepdaughter.

In 2012, more than 160 people were on death row in North Carolina. Since the death penalty was adopted in 1977, 43 people have been executed, view their names here and the victims here.

In Fayetteville, NC on Thursday, May 23, 2013 Mario McNeill was convicted guilty on six of seven charges by a 12-member jury. With the sentencing hearing resuming next week McNeill could face the death penalty and head to Death Row.

Death Row

The prison for housing death row inmates is located in Raleigh. The cells on two levels open into a dayroom area that has a television at one end, stainless steel tables in the middle and showers at the other end. Each cell has a bed, a lavatory, commode, and a wall-mounted writing table.

According to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety website, inmates on death row spend nearly all their time in either their cells or the adjacent dayroom. They may stay in their dayroom from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m. While in the dayroom, they may watch television.

Death row inmates may be assigned incentive wage jobs in the canteen or clothes house, or may work as barbers or janitors within their housing areas. They are required to keep their cells and dayrooms clean. Inmates are allowed at least one hour per day for exercise and showers. Two days a week, officers escort death row inmates in groups from each cellblock pod to outdoor exercise areas, weather permitting, where the inmates can play basketball, walk or jog. Officers also escort the death row inmates by cellblock to the dining halls for each meal.

Death row inmates may receive one visit a week with a maximum of two visitors. In the visiting booths, visitors may see and talk with inmates, but physical contact is not possible. Inmates may participate in a one-hour Christian worship service each Sunday, or Islamic worship services for one hour each Friday. A Bible study class is also conducted by the prison's chaplain for 90 minutes each Tuesday morning.

When a death row inmate exhausts all appeals, the attorney general directs the secretary of the Department of Public Safety to set an execution date. That inmate - male or female - is moved into the death watch area of Central Prison three to seven days prior to the execution date. The death watch area is adjacent to the execution chamber and is located in the prison's custody control building. The inmate moves all personal belongings from the death row cell to one of the four cells in the death watch area.