Date set for death penalty hearing

The Daily Reflector

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Dec. 8 has been set for a hearing to notify double-murder suspect James Richardson if a death penalty case will be pursued against him.

Pitt County Superior Court Judge Russell Duke set the Rule 24 hearing at the request of prosecutor Clark Everett. The request came Monday during a monthly administrative hearing to review the status of dozens of cases.

Rule 24 hearings must be held to notify defendants and their attorneys whether prosecutors will pursue capital murder charges.

If they intend to pursue the death penalty, prosecutors must list the aggravating circumstances they believe exist to justify such a case.

Everett declined Monday to state whether he’s decided to seek the death penalty against Richardson, charged in the June 30 shooting deaths of Drew Kirby and Landon Blackley outside The Other Place nightclub in downtown Greenville.

He can pursue capital punishment if his investigation determines that evidence will support the presence of at least one of 11 aggravating factors outlined in state statues.

Aggravating factors

North Carolina requires prosecutors seeking the death penalty to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the crime included at least one of the following 11 aggravating circumstances:

• It was committed by a person lawfully incarcerated.
• The defendant had been previously convicted of another capital felony or had been in a juvenile proceeding for committing an offense that would be a capital felony if committed by an adult.
• The defendant had been previously convicted of a felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person.
• It was committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest or effecting an escape from custody.
• It was committed while the defendant was engaged in the commission of any homicide, robbery, rape or a sex offense, arson, burglary, kidnapping, or aircraft piracy or the unlawful throwing, placing, or discharging of a destructive device.
• It was committed for pecuniary gain.
• It was committed to disrupt or hinder the lawful exercise of any governmental function or the enforcement of laws.
• It was committed against a law‐enforcement officer, employee of the Department of Correction, jailer, fireman, judge or justice, former judge or justice, prosecutor or former prosecutor, juror or former juror, or witness or former witness against the defendant.
• It was especially heinous or cruel.
• The defendant knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person by means of a weapon or device which would normally be hazardous to the lives of more than one person.
• The murder for which the defendant stands convicted was part of a course of conduct which included the commission by the defendant of other crimes of violence against another person or persons.

Previous story on the Rule 24 hearing from Sept. 20:

Further investigation is needed before deciding to pursue the death penalty in a June 30 double homicide in downtown Greenville, Pitt County’s district attorney said.

District Attorney Clark Everett said he is considering whether evidence against James Earl Richardson shows “aggravating circumstances” existed during the shooting of Drew Kirby and Landon Blackley outside The Other Place nightclub.

He can pursue capital punishment if his investigation determines that evidence will support the presence of at least one of 11 such factors outlined in state statues, he said.

“We’re trying to determine if any aggravating circumstances exist and, if there are, whether they are sufficient to request the trial as a capital case,” Everett said in an interview last week after Richardson was indicted on two count of first-degree murder.

Richardson is the lone suspect in the incident, according to police. Investigators say he fired a large number of shots at the club from white BMW driving on Fifth Street.

Kirby, a restaurant manager, and Blackley, an East Carolina University student, were among a crowd on the sidewalk near the club when the shots rang out.