The following is a list of people executed by the U.S. state of North Carolina before 1972, when capital punishment was briefly abolished by the Supreme Court's ruling in Furman v. Georgia. For execution after the restoration of capital punishment by the Supreme Court's ruling in Gregg v. Georgia (1976), see List of people executed in North Carolina.
Historically, all executions in North Carolina were carried out locally by hanging. In 1910, local hangings were officially replaced by centralized electrocution, with the state creating a single execution chamber at Central Prison in Raleigh.
In November 1935, North Carolina officially added gas asphyxiation as a method of execution alongside electrocution. The state completed building its new execution chamber that December, which was arranged so that it could be used for both gas asphyxiations and electrocutions; prison officials could choose which method to use and switch between them "in a second," as some existing cases required electrocution. The state's existing electric chair was moved to the new execution chamber but had its electrodes and wires removed for gas asphyxiations. The state eventually fully transitioned to gas asphyxiations in 1938, despite continued support for the restoration of electrocution by state and prison officials.