Stay updated with breaking news from Jonathan Babb. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
The trial court did not clearly err in determining that the state did not improperly use its peremptory strikes against Black jurors. The white jurors who gave similar answers and who were not struck were more pro-death penalty and appeared less likely to improperly sympathize with the defendant and/or to give more credibility to the
The N.C. Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday in the case of a death-row inmate who alleges that Forsyth County prosecutors used a training document to make up non-racial reasons
Judge Wayland J. Sermons, Jr. heard Hasson Bacote’s Racial Justice Act claim in Wake County Superior Court on May 20, 2021. The first case re-evaluating the role of racial bias in the death penalty began last week in Wake County, the result of a landmark 2020 state Supreme Court decision. Hasson Bacote was convicted of murdering Anthony Surles, an 18-year-old high schooler in Johnston County in 2007, WRAL reported. A jury sentenced Bacote to death in 2009. That same year, the General Assembly passed the Racial Justice Act, which then-Gov. Bev Perdue signed into law. The RJA allowed indivi...
FUNDRAISERS held in memory of an inspirational Stourbridge woman have raised an incredible £17,000 for Stourbridge's Mary Stevens Hospice where she spent her final days. Kate Turner (nee Winning), aged 47, passed away at the hospice on December 1 after a re-occurrence of the acute myeloid leukaemia that she had so bravely and successfully battled as a young woman more than 20 years ago. Much-loved Kate courageously fought a three-year battle against the deadly disease in the late 1990s during which she endured chemotherapy, radiotherapy, a bone marrow transplant thanks to sister Sarah,...
The N.C. Supreme Court ordered on Friday a new trial for Molly Corbett and Thomas Martens in the 2015 murder of Irish businessman Jason Corbett, saying that the two were denied a fair trial. The decision comes about two months after the court heard oral arguments in the case via video due to the ongoing pandemic. In a 4-3 decision, the state Supreme Court upheld the decision by the N.C. Court of Appeals to overturn the murder convictions of Molly Corbett and Martens. In the next three weeks, they will be moved from state prison to the Davidson County Jail. Their attorneys will ask a judge to ...