Caswell killer’s fate up in air

While Virginia is in the process of setting execution dates for death row inmates, North Carolina is taking a more cautious approach to the death penalty.

Lawyers in the North Carolina attorney general’s offices are studying the Supreme Court decision upholding lethal injection, said Noelle Talley, press secretary for Attorney General Roy Cooper.

The ruling announced Wednesday may not be enough to bring an immediate end to the unofficial moratorium in North Carolina, where executions in the state have been on hold since January 2007.

Two challenges to North Carolina’s use of the death penalty are under appeal, and neither is directly affected by the Supreme Court’s decision, Talley said.

“We don’t have an answer on any specific case,” she said.

With those questions not being answered, no execution dates can be set, Talley said.

Five executions, including that of Caswell County, N.C., convicted killer Archie Billings, are on hold while these court cases remain on appeal.

Billings is sitting on death row for the brutal murder and rape of 11-year-old Amy Jackson. He also was convicted of stabbing her brother, Bobby, more than 20 times. The teenager survived the attack.

The crime took place on July 7, 1995, in the Yanceyville area.

During the trial it was revealed that Robert Jackson, father of the victims, left his mobile home early on the morning of the attack to gather a herd of cows for milking.

Billings, who worked at the nearby Shumaker Dairy Farm with Robert Jackson, entered the mobile home while the children were sleeping and stabbed Bobby Jackson repeatedly, prosecutors said. While her brother was being attacked, Amy Jackson began to run from the home as Billings began his attack on her.

An autopsy on Amy Jackson, who was found with her throat cut, revealed that she had been sexually assaulted by Billings.

In addition to Billings’ case, the cases of inmates Clinton R. Rose and Kenneth Neal from Rockingham County remain in limbo.

Rose was sentenced to death in 1991 and Neal received the death penalty in 1996.

North Carolina executed its last inmate in August 2006.

Sen. Tony Foriest, D-Alamance, agreed that it’s too soon to resume capital punishment in North Carolina.

He said there has been a movement to get executions under way, but he doesn’t think it will affect the state’s stance.

“This won’t be a stumbling block to legally resuming capital punishment,” Foriest said.

The senator didn’t want to talk about specific cases, but said he’s not against the death penalty.

“There are some people who can’t live among other people,” he said.

Foriest, however, said he believes that innocent people have been executed in the past and that concerns him.

Mike Stater, spokesman for the North Carolina Department of Correction, agreed that there are more questions than answers regarding the high court’s ruling. He said the department must wait until it gets further instructions from the attorney general’s office.

• Contact Bernard Baker at or (434) 791-7986.