List of people executed in North Carolina

The following is a list of people executed by the U.S. state of North Carolina since capital punishment was resumed in the United States in 1976.

There have been a total of 43 executions in North Carolina, under the current statute, since it was adopted in 1977. All of the people executed were convicted of murder. Of the 43 people executed, 42 were male and 1 was female. 41 were executed via lethal injection and 2 via gas chamber.^[1]

List of people executed in North Carolina since 1976

No.	Name	Race	Age	Sex	Date of execution	County	Method	Victim(s)	Governor
1	James William Hutchins	White	54	M	March 16, 1984	McDowell	Lethal injection	Roy Huskey, Owen Messersmith, and Robert "Pete" Peterson^[a]	Jim Hunt
2	Margie Velma Barfield	White	52	F	November 2, 1984	Bladen		Stuart Taylor	Jim Hunt
3	John William Rook	White	27	M	September 19, 1986	Wake		Ann Marie Roche	James G. Martin
4	Michael Van McDougall	White	36	M	October 18, 1991	Mecklenburg		Dianne Parker
5	John Sterling Gardner Jr.	White	34	M	October 23, 1992	Forsyth		Richard Adams and Kim Miller
6	David Scarborough Lawson	White	38	M	June 15, 1994	Cabarrus	Gas chamber	Wayne Shinn	Jim Hunt
7	Kermit Smith Jr.	White	37	M	January 24, 1995	Halifax	Lethal injection	Whelette Collins
8	Phillip Lee Ingle	White	34	M	September 22, 1995	Rutherford	Lethal injection	4 murder victims^[b]
9	Ricky Lee Sanderson	White	38	M	January 30, 1998	Iredell	Gas chamber^[c]	Sue Ellen Holliman
10	Zane Brown Hill	White	62	M	August 14, 1998	Buncombe	Lethal injection	Randall Hill
11	John Thomas Noland Jr.	White	50	M	November 20, 1998	Mecklenburg		Cindy Milton and Troy Milton
12	James David Rich	White	26	M	March 26, 1999	Greene		Paul Gwyn
13	Harvey Lee Green	Black	38	M	September 24, 1999	Pitt		Sheila Bland and Michael Edmondson
14	Arthur Martin Boyd Jr.	White	53	M	October 21, 1999	Surry		Wanda Hartman
15	David Junior Brown	Black	51	M	November 19, 1999	Union		Shelly Chalflinch and Christina Chalflinch
16	Michael Earl Sexton	Black	34	M	November 9, 2000	Wake		Kimberly Crews
17	Willie Ervin Fisher	Black	39	M	March 9, 2001	Forsyth		Angela Johnson	Mike Easley
18	Clifton Allen White	White	43	M	August 24, 2001	Mecklenburg		Kimberly Ewing
19	Ronald Wayne Frye	White	42	M	August 31, 2001	Catawba		Ralph Childress
20	David Junior Ward	Black	39	M	October 12, 2001	Pitt		Dorothy Mae Smith
21	John Hardy Rose	White	43	M	November 30, 2001	Haywood		Patricia Stewart
22	Ernest West Basden	White	49	M	December 6, 2002	Duplin		Billy White
23	Desmond Keith Carter	Black	35	M	December 10, 2002	Rockingham		Helen Purdy
24	William Quentin Jones	Black	34	M	August 22, 2003	Wake		Edward Peebles
25	Henry Lee Hunt	Native American	58	M	September 12, 2003	Robeson		Larry Jones and Jackie Ransom
26	Joseph Earl Bates	White	35	M	September 26, 2003	Yadkin		Charles Jenkins
27	Edward Ernest Hartman	White	39	M	October 3, 2003	Northampton		Herman Larry Smith Sr.
28	Joseph Timothy Keel	White	39	M	November 7, 2003	Edgecombe		John Simmons
29	John Dennis Daniels	Black	46	M	November 14, 2003	Mecklenburg		Isabelle Daniels Crawford
30	Robbie James Lyons	Black	31	M	December 5, 2003	Forsyth		Stephen Stafford
31	Raymond Dayle Rowsey	White	32	M	January 9, 2004	Alamance		Howard Sikorski
32	Sammy Crystal Perkins	Black	51	M	October 8, 2004	Pitt		Lashenna Moore
33	Charles Wesley Roache	White	30	M	October 22, 2004	Haywood		6 murder victims^[d]
34	Frank Ray Chandler	White	32	M	November 12, 2004	Surry		Doris Poore
35	William Dillard Powell	White	58	M	March 11, 2005	Cleveland		Mary Gladden
36	Earl J. Richmond Jr.	Black	43	M	May 6, 2005	Cumberland		Helisa S. Hayes, Phillip Hayes, and Darien Hayes
37	Steven Van McHone	White	35	M	November 11, 2005	Surry		Mildred Adams and Wesley Adams Sr.
38	Elias Hanna Syriani	Arab	67	M	November 18, 2005	Mecklenburg		Teresa Yousef Syriani
39	Kenneth Lee Boyd^[e]	White	57	M	December 2, 2005	Rockingham		Julie Curry Boyd and Thomas Dillard Curry
40	Perrie Dyon Simpson	Black	43	M	January 20, 2006	Rockingham		Jean Ernest Darter
41	Patrick Lane Moody	White	39	M	March 17, 2006	Davidson		Donnie Ray Robbins
42	Willie Brown Jr.	Black	61	M	April 21, 2006	Martin		Valerie Ann Roberson Dixon
43	Samuel Russell Flippen	White	36	M	August 18, 2006	Forsyth		Britnie Nichole Hutton

Demographics

Race
White	28	65%
Black	13	30%
Arab	1	2%
Native American	1	2%
Age
20–29	2	5%
30–39	22	51%
40–49	7	16%
50–59	9	21%
60–69	3	7%
Sex
Male	42	98%
Female	1	2%
Date of execution
1976–1979	0	0%
1980–1989	3	7%
1990–1999	12	28%
2000–2009	28	65%
2010–2019	0	0%
2020–2029	0	0%
Method
Lethal injection	41	95%
Gas chamber	2	5%
Governor (Party)
James Holshouser (R)	0	0%
Jim Hunt (D)	13	30%
James G. Martin (R)	3	7%
Mike Easley (D)	27	63%
Bev Perdue (D)	0	0%
Pat McCrory (R)	0	0%
Roy Cooper (D)	0	0%
Total	43	100%

Notes

^ Huskey and Messersmith were Rutherford County Deputy Sheriffs and Peterson was a North Carolina State Trooper.
^ The 4 victims were: William Fred Davis, Margaret Davis, E.Z. Willis, and Sarah Willis.
^ This was the second-to-last execution by gas chamber to be carried out in the United States.
^ The 6 victims were: Chad McKinley Watt, Earl Phillips, Cora Phillips, Eddie Phillips, Mitzi Phillips, and Katie Phillips.
^ Kenneth Lee Boyd was the 1,000th person to be executed in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.