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North Carolina
DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION
Michael F. Easley, Governor           Theodis Beck, Secretary

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 19, 2002
Contact: Keith Acree
             (919) 716-3727

Correction Secretary Denies Request to Release Death Row Inmate

RALEIGH – Correction Secretary Theodis Beck today denied a request to release terminally ill death row inmate Edward Lemons. Lemons’ attorneys had asked that Lemons be released to a hospice in North Carolina or Michigan.

After careful consideration of the facts, input from the Division of Prisons and consultation with the families of the victims, the secretary made his decision pursuant to the discretionary authority vested by N.C.G.S. §148-4(8). This statute allows the secretary to extend the limits of the place of confinement for terminally ill and permanently incapacitated inmates in order to receive palliative care.

"While Edward Lemons’ release from prison is denied, the Division of Prisons will continue to accommodate the Lemons’ family as we provide appropriate medical care for the inmate," said Secretary Beck.

Lemons is being treated in the hospital at Central Prison, where he is permitted to receive bedside visits from his family and attorneys every two hours.

Lemons, 34, received two death sentences for the 1994 murders of Bobby Gene Stroud, 38, and Margaret Daniels Strickland, 34, both of Goldsboro. He also received an additional 160 years in prison for two counts of first degree kidnapping and two counts of robbery with a firearm.

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