In 2001, a report that reconstructed an automobile crash helped send Quincy Amerson to prison for life for allegedly running over 7-year-old Sharita Rivera at least four times. But earlier this month, a judge threw out Amerson’s first-degree murder conviction after testimony debunking the report’s conclusions. 

Superior Court Judge C. Winston Gilchrist said prosecutors should not have introduced the report or the testimony of the trooper who wrote it at trial. Doing so denied Amerson a fair trial and violated his constitutional rights, Gilchrist found. Gilchrist ordered Amerson to be transferred to Harnett County Jail and held without bond until further court proceedings.  […]

Michael Hewlett is a courts and law reporter for The Assembly. He was previously a legal affairs reporter at the Winston-Salem Journal and has won two Henry Lee Weathers Freedom of Information Awards.

Anne Blythe, a former reporter for The News & Observer, has reported on courts, criminal justice, and an array of topics in North Carolina for more than three decades.