The shooting death of Andrew Walker by an off-duty Cumberland County Sheriff’s Deputy has drawn significant attention this week. Fayetteville Mayor Mitch Colvin told ABC 11 that in his opinion Cumberland deputy Jeffrey Hash should be charged with a crime for shooting Walker, who Hash said jumped on his truck and ripped off a windshield wiper which Walker then used to beat the windshield as Hash and his family were in the vehicle. A judge recently authorized the release of body camera footage from officers who responded to the incident. Keep reading for more news.
Sedition Charges. The Associated Press reports that the founder of the Oath Keepers militia group, Stewart Rhodes, and ten other people have been charged with seditious conspiracy for their role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol last January. Indictments allege that Rhodes and the others were involved in planning military-style maneuvers in and around the Capitol in an effort to prevent the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
First Step Guidelines. As the New York Times reports, a recent change by the US Department of Justice to guidelines related to the First Step Act is expected to soon result in the release of thousands of federal prisoners to supervised release programs, residential reentry centers, and home confinement. The change expands use of credits inmates have earned for good behavior and participation in job training programs to reduce active prison time. It comes soon after a decision by the department that inmates already released early to home confinement during the pandemic would not have to return to prison.
Jail Deaths. WLOS reports that an investigation is underway in Rutherford County where a pretrial detainee, Andrew Franklin Hodge, was found dead on Wednesday and four others were transported to a hospital with overdose symptoms. Hodge had been charged with murder and held without bond. Investigators are examining how drugs may have entered the facility.
Shooting. As WRAL reports, Roger Dale Nobles has been charged with first degree murder for killing Stephen Addison in Fayetteville after Nobles and his son, Roger Jr., argued with Addison while they were navigating congested traffic in the city. The argument eventually culminated in Roger Jr. getting out of the truck he and has father were riding in to confront Addison at a stop light. As Roger Jr. and Addison argued, the elder Nobles allegedly shot Addison with a shotgun from the driver’s seat of his truck.
Dashboard. Jessie blogged yesterday about the recent addition of criminal charging metrics to the Criminal Justice Lab’s Measuring Justice Dashboard but it’s worth mentioning again because the new tool really deserves a look if you haven’t seen it yet. The new feature in the Dashboard allows users to take a deep dive into more than two years of criminal charging data that can be sorted and visualized at the state and county level. Jessie’s post provides an overview of the new tool and a link to the Dashboard.