DataNorth Carolina  

*These factors track the process--i.e. the effort and obstacles--for obtaining data from individual states under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and appeals process. These factors do not measure the quality of the data; only the process of attempting to obtain the data.

North Carolina responded immediately to our FOIA request with a link to their interactive dashboards.

North Carolina responded immediately to our FOIA request with a link to their interactive dashboards. North Carolina’s statutes, however, are not specific for felony murder. Although we attempted to use publicly available web portals to identify individuals incarcerated under felony murder, as in most other states, North Carolina does not have a statute specifically codifying felony murder, which would make it easier to identify and isolate felony murder conviction data. Instead, as in most other states, felony murder is defined within its other murder statute and the publicly available conviction and sentence information did not distinguish felony murder from other murder convictions.

We appealed the FOIA results and asked for more specific data related to felony murder, but North Carolina just resent us the link to their interactive dashboard.

"As you may be aware, N.C. General Statute § 132-6.2.(e) does not 'require a public agency to respond to a request for a copy of a public record by creating or compiling a record that does not exist.'”

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In North Carolina, felony murder is defined in the first degree murder statute (N.C. Gen. Stat. Ann. § 14-17).

Prosecutors can charge and convict any person of murder without having to prove that they intended to cause another person’s death. Prosecutors must only prove that a person committed or attempted to committed a specified felony or any other felony committed or attempted with a deadly weapon and a death occurred.

A conviction for felony murder carries a sentence of life without the possibility of parole or death.