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SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

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The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

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Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

NC Shift from Death Penalty? Life Sentence in Wake County Murder

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Wednesday, February 24, 2016   

RALEIGH, N.C. - He was convicted of murdering a Raleigh mother of two in her apartment, but Travion Smith will not face the death penalty. A Wake County jury on Monday instead opted for the convicted killer to spend life in prison without the possibility of parole.

It marks the sixth time in a row that the Wake County prosecutor's office pursued the death penalty in a capital murder case, only to have the jury return a life sentence, prompting the district attorney to speak publicly on the future of the death penalty in North Carolina, said Gretchen Engel, executive director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation.

"She spoke of the need to maybe reconsider and take another look at what are we doing? What's the best allocation of resources? How do we keep the public safe and discharge our obligation to punish crimes? And maybe the death penalty is not part of that mix," Engel said.

Currently, 152 offenders are on North Carolina's death row, but there hasn't been an execution in the state since 2006. No new death sentences were handed down last year in the Tar Heel State. In addition to a demonstrated statewide shift away from the use of the death penalty, Pope Francis said on Tuesday that the death penalty is "against God's plan" and called for an end to the punishment worldwide.

Supporters of the death penalty have said it is needed for the harshest of crimes.

Engel said it's also important to note that a life-in-prison sentence represents a harsh punishment for Smith.

"There are very strict rules in prison and none of us would trade our liberty for that punishment," she said. "This is not a holiday camp, this is a very serious punishment. As is appropriate, what happened to Melissa Huggins Jones is horrifying."

Engel said the Smith case is another indication that the public is telling law enforcement and the courts that life in prison without parole is sufficiently harsh, and justice and public safety don't require the death penalty.


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