DARE COUNTY, N.C. — One of four suspects charged in the deadly 2017 Pasquotank, North Carolina prison break was given the death penalty Thursday after a jury convicted him last month.
Wisezah Buckman was found guilty of four counts of first-degree murder. Five years ago, Buckman and three other inmates tried to break out of the Pasquotank Correctional Institution. Four prison workers were killed after the inmates violently attacked them.
None of the inmates succeeded in escaping.
Buckman's trial was originally planned for March 2020 but got pushed back because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Dare County court clerk tells 13News Now that Buckman was convicted in October, following a nearly month-long trial. On Thursday, he was sentenced to death for three of the murder convictions, and life without parole on the fourth conviction.
He is the second inmate to be convicted for his role in the deadly prison break attempt. Another inmate, Mikel Brady, was also sentenced to death after being found guilty of four counts of first-degree murder back in 2019.
