Raleigh, North Carolina - North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper announced the commutation of 15 death row sentences on his final day in office.

"After thorough review, reflection, and prayer, I concluded that the death sentence imposed on these 15 people should be commuted, while ensuring they will spend the rest of their lives in prison," Cooper said in a statement on New Year's Eve.

The 15 sentences were changed to life without the possibility of parole.

Prior to the action, there were 136 people on death row in North Carolina. The governor's office had received clemency petitions from 89 of those people.

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North Carolina has not carried out an execution since 2006.

Cooper's action came in the final hours of his term as governor. On January 1, he was replaced by fellow Democrat Josh Stein, who defeated far-right, scandal-wracked Republican Mark Robinson in the November elections.

President Joe Biden, who leaves office January 20, last month announced the commutation of 37 out of 40 federal death row sentences. He also commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people and pardoned 39 others in what the White House described as the largest single-day act of clemency in US history.

The outgoing president still faces calls to use his executive clemency powers to provide relief to more people behind bars, including Indigenous political prisoner Leonard Peltier.