Issue

Capital case—executive clemency—death sentence commuted to life imprisonment without parole— effect on right of direct appeal to Supreme Court

Summary

In a capital case, where defendant applied for clemency while his appeal from a judgment sentencing him to death for first-degree murder was still pending in the Supreme Court, which resulted in the governor commuting defendant's death sentence to life imprisonment without parole, the Supreme Court granted defendant's motion to remand the appeal to the Court of Appeals on the ground that, because he no longer faced execution, he did not retain his statutory right of direct appeal to the Supreme Court under N.C.G.S. §§ 7A-27(a)(1) and 15A-2000(d), since the legislative purpose under those statutes for allowing direct Supreme Court review–to prevent arbitrary or unjust executions–no longer applied to his case, which had become a non-capital felony case requiring appellate review in the Court of Appeals under N.C.G.S. § 7A-27(b)(1).

Summary from the North Carolina Reports digest (official subject index). Read the opinion →