In 2003, North Carolina State Senator Eleanor "Ellie" Kinnaird sponsored a bill (S.B. 972) in the North Carolina State Senate to institute a two-year moratorium on capital punishment for the purpose of studying the inequities in capital sentencing along racial, economic, and geographic lines. The moratorium bill was supported by over 750 endorsers, including the cities of Charlotte, Greensboro, and Chapel Hill, and Orange and Durham counties. The Senate passed the bill, but it was later defeated in the North Carolina House of Representatives.
Shown below is a note written by Senator Kinnaird asking a colleague to draft the moratorium bill. Senator Kinnaird's note is followed by an early two-page draft of the bill.
(Image from Eleanor Kinnaird Papers, #5356, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
