In his final day in office, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on Tuesday changed the justice resolved through legal prosecutions by taking 15 people off death row. A release says “thorough review of detailed petitions for clemency” included input from families of victims,

One of the inmates receiving clemency had challenged his sentence under the groundbreaking Racial Justice Act of 2009. A judge had yet to issue a decision in that case.

In one of his final acts in office, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has commuted the death sentences of 15 men convicted of first-degree murder to life in prison without parole.

Cooper's decision to commute the 15 inmates' sentences marks the largest clemency action of its kind in North Carolina.

Gov. Roy Cooper announced he would change the death sentences of 15 people to life in prison without parole as one of his final acts as governor.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper commuted the death sentences of 15 inmates in the state on his last day in office, a move that was praised by several advocacy organizations

Gov. Roy Cooper announced on Tuesday that he reviewed 89 clemency petitions from death row inmates and granted 15 of them.

Governor Roy Cooper commuted the sentences of 15 death row inmates in North Carolina on his last day in office.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) on Tuesday commuted the death sentences of 15 inmates to life in prison without the possibility of parole, coinciding with New Year’s Eve and his final day in office.

Death penalty abolitionists are praising former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper for one of his final actions in office: The Democrat on Tuesday commuted the sentences of 15 men on death row to life in prison without the possibility of parole.