by Michelle Sparrow | Mar 10, 2015 | Criminal Law Blog, Violent Crimes
There is still a struggle in the media, in the community and in the courtroom to put a label on the Chapel Hill killings on Feb. 11. The victims were three Muslim American college students, the confessed shooter a 46-year-old white man. The defendant, Craig Stephen... by Michelle Sparrow | Mar 6, 2015 | Criminal Law Blog, Violent Crimes
It looks as if the Durham district attorney will ask for the death penalty in the case against a 46-year-old Chapel Hill man. The defendant, Craig Stephen Hicks, turned himself in to sheriff’s deputies on Feb. 11, a few hours, he said, after he shot three... by Michelle Sparrow | Feb 16, 2015 | Criminal Law Blog, Violent Crimes
We realize we are a little slow to get to the water cooler with our post-Super Bowl rundown. The game aired Feb. 1 and managed to keep viewers’ interest to the last. But chat about the game is not the only thing that offices buzz about the day after: The ads are... by Michelle Sparrow | Jan 25, 2015 | Criminal Law Blog, Violent Crimes
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal of three inmates on Oklahoma’s death row. They are challenging the use of the sedative midazolam in that state’s lethal injection executions. In theory, the drug renders the inmate unconscious in an... by Michelle Sparrow | Jan 20, 2015 | Criminal Law Blog, Violent Crimes
A group of North Carolina public defenders rallied in Charlotte just a couple of days shy of the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday. What brought them together was a common belief that the criminal justice system across the country is plagued by racial bias,...