Perdue apologizes for 'torturous' remark

Beverly Perdue has apologized for a remark on the death penalty.

As a state senator, Perdue opposed a bill to phase out the gas chamber in state executions, according to a March 23, 1995, story in the Charlotte Observer:

Another death penalty backer, Sen. Beverly Perdue, D-Craven, suggested that doing away with the gas chamber would lessen capital punishment's deterrent value.

"I think we should make it painful and torturous," she said.

When the comment came up in a discussion on the liberal Web site BlueNC, Perdue logged on and apologized.

"I made that quote more than a decade ago, and I'm sorry," she wrote this afternoon. "I know that we must make sure that innocent people are not on death row and that's why I favor the current moratorium."