Jason Alan Thornburg showed no emotion as the judge read his death sentence aloud. A few jurors, who had decided the murderous former street preacher’s fate moments ago, brushed away tears. Relatives and friends of the victims let out sighs of relief.

One of the inmates receiving clemency had challenged his sentence under the groundbreaking Racial Justice Act of 2009, a judge had yet to issue a decision in that case.

In one of his final acts in office, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has commuted the death sentences of 15 men convicted of first-degree murder to life in prison without parole.