The Durham Herald-Sun reports that the Durham District Attorney’s Office dismissed a murder charge against Alexander Bishop, a Durham teenager who was accused of killing his father in 2018. The dismissal, based on insufficient evidence, follows a trial court ruling last year that search warrants in the case were invalid because an investigator misrepresented evidence when applying for them. Keep reading for more news.
Christopher Tyner
News Roundup
WRAL reports that Durham police announced yesterday that they recently made an arrest in a sexual assault case that occurred more than four years ago. In November 2015, a woman was attacked and sexually assaulted while walking home from work on the Ellerbe Creek Trail. The WRAL report says that investigators were unable to develop strong leads in the case until last fall, when they submitted DNA from the rape kit for testing. That test connected the DNA to Emanuel Dwayne Burch, whose DNA profile was in a national database. The State Crime Lab then connected the DNA in the kit to a new sample taken from Burch. Keep reading for more news.
News Roundup
On Tuesday, officials in Winston-Salem held a press conference announcing coordinated efforts to deter gun violence in the city. As the Winston-Salem Journal reports, there were more homicides in Winston in 2019 than in any other year in the past quarter century. Chief of Police Catrina Thompson, Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough, District Attorney Jim O’Neal, U.S. Attorney Matt Martin, Mayor Allen Joines, and Councilman James Taylor all spoke at the press conference, with Thompson saying that they would “use every one of the resources [they] have” to pursue individuals involved in violent crime. Keep reading for more information about the efforts in Winston and other criminal law news.
News Roundup
As the New York Times reports, Attorney General William Barr said this week that a shooting at a naval air station in Pensacola, Florida, last month was an act of terrorism and asked Apple to unlock two iPhones used by the shooter. In early December, a Saudi Air Force cadet training in Florida, Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, killed three sailors and wounded eight others after opening fire in a classroom where he was training with the U.S. military to become a pilot. Attorney General Barr said that Apple had not provided substantive assistance in accessing Alshamrani’s iPhones but Apple disputed that claim, saying that it had been working with the FBI since the shooting occurred and had given investigators access to his iCloud account and other data. As the Times report notes, the standoff is reminiscent of a 2016 case where Apple refused to break the encryption of a phone used by a shooter in a California terror attack. Keep reading for more news.
News Roundup
Among the most significant North Carolina criminal news stories last year was the tragic shooting on the campus of UNC Charlotte that killed two students, Reed Parlier and Riley Howell, and injured four others. This week, the Charlotte Observer reports the proposal of a $1 million permanent memorial and reflection space to commemorate and remember the victims of the attack. Keep reading for more information about the memorial and other news.
News Roundup
As the Asheville Citizen-Times reports, earlier this month the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians was the victim of a damaging cyberattack that caused widespread damage to tribal networks and affected critical systems including 911 dispatch. Almost two weeks out from the December 7 attack, the tribe still is working to repair their network and bring systems back online. A former IT employee who was suspended two days before the attack, Benjamin Cody Long, has been arrested in connection with the incident. A report from the Cherokee One Feather covering Long’s detention hearing in Cherokee Tribal Court has detailed information about the attack and includes a quote from the judge describing the damage as “immense and unprecedented.”
This is the last blog post of the year. Thanks to all of our readers for engaging with the blog this year, we hope that everyone has a safe and happy holiday season. Keep reading for more news.
News Roundup
As the New York Times reports, a prolonged shootout at a Kosher supermarket in Jersey City, New Jersey, on Tuesday terrified the city and left six people dead, including a police officer. Now being investigated as an anti-Semitic hate crime, it appears that the supermarket was purposefully chosen as a target. Suspects David N. Anderson and Francine Graham, who both died during the attack, are thought to have shot Detective Joe Seals, a 15-year law enforcement veteran, in an encounter at a cemetery and then to have driven to the market where they began shooting at people with rifles. When police arrived at the scene, they were immediately fired upon and a lengthy gun battle ensued, eventually concluding when an armored vehicle was used to ram through the front of the market. Keep reading for more news.
Case Summaries – North Carolina Supreme Court (12/6/2019)
This post summarizes opinions issued by the North Carolina Supreme Court on December 6, 2019.
News Roundup
As the News Roundup previously has noted, Charles Ray Finch was released from North Carolina prison earlier this year after serving more than 40 years for a murder that he did not commit. This week the News & Observer reported that Finch has filed a federal lawsuit against Wilson County, Sheriff Calvin Woodard Jr., two former Wilson County deputies, and two staffers with the SBI. According to the N&O, the suit alleges that deputies with the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office, then led by W. Robin Pridgen, organized the 1976 robbery that resulted in store owner Richard Holloman’s murder and then framed Finch for the crime. Keep reading for more news.
News Roundup
With the short holiday week, the News Roundup comes a few days early. We hope our readers have a safe and happy holiday. We’ll be back to blogging on Monday. Keep reading for the latest in criminal law and Thanksgiving news.