by Michelle Sparrow | Mar 3, 2011 | Criminal Law Blog, Homicide
The trial of the former doctor we discussed in our February 24th post ended Wednesday when the judge sentenced the man to three years in prison. The jury did not buy the prosecution’s argument that the man had committed second-degree murder. Instead, they... by Michelle Sparrow | Mar 1, 2011 | Criminal Law Blog, Homicide
The trial of a Cary man accused of a notorious murder began in a Wake County courtroom yesterday. Before settling in to jury selection, the judge quashed, or annulled, the defense team’s subpoenas for information they say must be disclosed by the prosecution.... by Michelle Sparrow | Feb 22, 2011 | Criminal Defense, Criminal Law Blog
We’ve been discussing the “CSI Effect” — that is, the strongly held belief that jurors are so accustomed to television’s forensic acrobatics that they expect real-life prosecutors to present the same type of evidence. Criminal defense... by Michelle Sparrow | Feb 17, 2011 | Criminal Defense, Criminal Law Blog
In our last post, we were talking about the “CSI Effect.” Prosecutors in North Carolina and around the country have complained for a while now that American jurors are so swept up in the high-tech world of television forensics that they expect real-life... by Michelle Sparrow | Feb 15, 2011 | Criminal Defense, Criminal Law Blog
Debates about forensic evidence are not new in North Carolina. For a while last year, it seemed you couldn’t pick up a paper without seeing a story about the problems at the state crime lab and the State Bureau of Investigation. A major concern for defense...