Death Row Inmate Files Grievance After Being Denied Access to College Education Lyle May A North Carolina death row inmate has filed a grievance with the state Department of Public Safety after he was denied the opportunity to finish a privately funded bachelorâs degree program. Lyle May filed the 10-page handwritten letter last month after staffers at Central Prison in Raleigh abruptly told him that he would no longer have access to the correspondence courses, which he had paid for with private funds and scholarships. Public safety spokesman John Bull told the INDY this week that the policy forbidding death row inmates from enrolling in any type of educational program went into effect more than 20 years ago.