Big Changes at the Innocence Commission

Chief Justice Paul Newby touted his appointment of a former New Jersey prosecutor as the new executive director of the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission in a recent press release, noting that she had successfully tried several “high-profile” cases that included prosecuting a prominent religious figure for child sexual abuse. 

Laura Pierro, currently an immigration judge in Newark, New Jersey, will take over on April 1. She replaces Lindsey Guice Smith, who served as executive director for eight years. Smith left to pursue other opportunities, Newby said in the release. Associate Director Catherine Matoian will serve as interim director through April. 

Pierro, a Buffalo, New York native who got her law degree from Wake Forest University, spent 20 years with the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office. She was director of the office’s Special Victims’ Unit and the deputy executive prosecutor for all litigation. 

Newby said Pierro also made Ocean County history by seeking a life sentence in a non-homicide case that involved a paroled sex offender. The news release didn’t provide the name of the defendant or any other details about the case. 

“I am proud and humbled to serve as the next executive director of the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission,” Pierro said in a statement. “Having spent the last 25 years pursuing justice while abiding due process, I am cognizant that there is no greater injustice than someone who has been wrongfully convicted. I am therefore prepared to work diligently in this new role and embrace any challenges that lie ahead.”

Newby also appointed Brunswick County Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Jason Disbrow as the new chair of the commission, replacing Thomas Lock, senior resident superior court judge for Johnston County whose second term had expired. 

Since it was created in 2007, the Innocence Inquiry Commission has reviewed more than 3,600 wrongful-conviction claims. But only 15 claims have resulted in an exoneration–or less than 1 percent. . 

Last year, the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys pushed through legislation that critics said would make it harder for defendants to prove their innocence. The bill’s earlier versions included provisions prohibiting the commission’s executive director from accepting private donations and limiting its work to people who are currently incarcerated. The bill was amended after commission officials raised concerns. 

But one provision remained that could narrow the kind of evidence a three-judge panel could consider. A panel of three judges is appointed if the eight-member commission decides that a claimant has proven their innocence by “clear and convincing evidence.”

— Michael Hewlett

---

Flag On The Play

The U.S. Department of Justice has signed on with North Carolina and other states suing the National Collegiate Athletic Association over its transfer eligibility rule.

The rule allows Division 1 athletes to transfer to a new school once during their career and play immediately without having to sit out a year, as long as they meet academic eligibility requirements. Those who transfer more than once generally are required to miss a season or get a waiver.

The initial lawsuit was filed in December when Attorney General Josh Stein and six of his counterparts accused the NCAA of violating federal antitrust laws. They contend the restraint, or “no-poach agreement,” interferes with athletes’ ability to profit from name, image, and likeness agreements. They also argue the rules can limit an athlete’s educational opportunities.

“College sports are changing rapidly, but one thing remains the same: protecting student athletes has to be the top priority.” Stein said when the suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia. “This rule has been applied inconsistently and hampers college athletes from freely making decisions about where they go to school. The NCAA has long claimed that the transfer rule is necessary to give students time to acclimate, but that justification doesn’t make sense for student-athletes who are in good academic standing.”

Gov. Roy Cooper and Stein previously waded into the issue with letters to the NCAA after UNC wide receiver Tez Walker was denied a transfer waiver. Cooper, a UNC-Chapel Hill alum and avid college sports fan, wrote a letter in August to Charlie Baker, the NCAA’s president and a former Massachusetts governor.

“During your service as Governor of Massachusetts, I admired your dogged pursuit of commonsense solutions to our thorniest problems,” Cooper wrote. “In your current service leading the NCAA, I have great hope that you will be able to bring that same thoughtful and balanced approach to the rapidly evolving world of college sports.”

Stein followed up in September calling the decision “wrong–and likely illegal.” The NCAA ultimately reversed its decision and Walker got to play after missing four weeks of the 2023 season.

The issue, however, is bigger than one player–a player, who, by the way, has since decided to leave college early to enter the NFL draft. In addition to the Justice Department, Minnesota, Mississippi, Virginia, and the District of Columbia signed on to the amended lawsuit.

“NCAA Division I institutions compete with each other not just on the playing field or in the arena, but to recruit and retain college athletes,” Jonathan Kanfer, an assistant attorney general in the antitrust division, said in a statement. 

“College athletes should be able to freely choose the institutions that best meet their academic, personal and professional development needs without anticompetitive restrictions that limit their mobility by sacrificing a year of athletic competition.”

—Anne Blythe

---

On Our Radar

>>> eCourts Expands: It’s been nearly a year since the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts rolled out eCourts, its long-delayed, $100-million digital records system, in four pilot counties. As we reported at the time, the new system was plagued with early problems–enough to prompt a class-action lawsuit from people who say they spent days or weeks longer than necessary in jail or were arrested multiple times on the same warrant. 

It didn’t seem to go much better when eCourts was launched in Mecklenburg County last October, either. Now the office says that plans are moving forward to roll out eCourts in 12 northeastern counties on February 5 and 10 more in late April.

The launch seems to have gone well for one interested party at least: trees. NCAOC says “more than 2.3 million sheets of paper have been saved during the first two phases of eCourts.”  

>>> State v. Timothy Lamont Evans: Last November, Judge Edwin G. Wilson overturned the conviction of Timothy Lamont Evans, a man who served 13 years in prison after he was accused in a fatal 1993 shooting in Durham. A key witness recanted his testimony, and Wilson concluded that the state likely “would not have been able to obtain a conviction” without it. He also criticized Durham police detectives’ reliance on a federal inmate to reopen the case despite the inmate’s “questionable truthfulness.” 

Now, Evans’ attorneys are asking the state to dismiss the charges against him rather than pursue a new trial. “[T]he State is left with no credible evidence against Mr. Evans,” his lawyers write in the motion to dismiss. 

>>> Return To Sender: U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder ruled Sunday that a portion of a new state law that deals with same-day voter registration is likely unconstitutional. 

As WRAL explains, the measure pertains to those who register to vote or update their address and then cast a ballot the same day. Democrats and progressive groups challenged the verification process, which entails sending a postcard to those voters’ home addresses; if it is returned as undeliverable, their ballots can be canceled. 

Those voters “will face a non-trivial risk of being erroneously disenfranchised by failing address verification due to governmental error, rather than factors related to their eligibility to vote, without any notice and opportunity to be heard,” Schroeder wrote in granting the injunction.

He left it open to lawmakers to determine a way to address that concern. 

Spectrum News reports that House Speaker Tim Moore and House Election Law and Campaign Finance Reform Chair Grey Mills said in a statement that the order “requires relatively minor changes to one small part of the bill, and we are working with our attorneys and the State Board of Elections to ensure that the entire bill is in effect before the primary and general elections this year.”

Have any suggestions for improving this newsletter or stories we should look into? Email us at courts@theassemblync.com.

---

Around the State

---

---