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Charles Wesley Roache, NC
North Carolina
Oct. 22, 2004
Charles Wesley Roache was executed on Oct. 22. Our deepest sympathies are extended to his loved ones. We also keep the family members and loved ones of Mitzi and Katie Phillips in our prayers.
The state of North Carolina is scheduled to execute Charles Wesley Roache, a white man, Oct. 22 for the September 1999 killings of Mitzi Phillips and Katie Phillips in Haywood County. He was also convicted of killing four other people. Roache decided to forgo any further appeals after the Supreme Court of North Carolina rejected his appeal in May.
Roache was under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time of the crimes, causing his attorneys to assert that he was not capable of making rational choices or forming intent to kill.
Roache has faced many difficulties in his lifetime. The defense asserted that Roache struggled in school from the beginning when they noted his poor academics dating back to his elementary school days. Dr. Claudia Coleman, an expert in the field of forensic psychology, testified that Mr. Roache also suffered from “chronic anxiety disorder, had a low- average intelligence, and experienced a violent upbringing.” Mr. Roache also suffers from various personality disorders.
He has a vast history of “poly substance dependence” as noted by Dr. Coleman. Dr. Coleman attributes Roche’s long dependence on alcohol and drugs to his anxiety disorder.
Dr. Coleman testified at trial that the combination of alcohol and drug use as well as Mr. Roache’s anxiety and personality disorders would have “affected his judgment, reasoning and problem- solving skills at the time of the murders.” Roache was 25 at the time of his crime.
This is the second of two executions scheduled by the state of North Carolina in the month of October and third scheduled this year. The other scheduled execution in October involves a mentally ill man. Many groups in North Carolina are calling for a moratorium on executions in the state. Earlier this year the State Legislature in North Carolina failed to pass a bill that would have effectively placed a moratorium on all executions in the state. However, polls have shown that as many as 70 percent of North Carolinians support a moratorium on executions in the state.
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