Durham County Superior Court Judge Elaine Bushfan, hearing cases in Alamance County, reversed her own judgments in five cases this week, saying that the Alamance County District Attorney’s office was too “harsh,” and that she would no longer hear criminal cases in Alamance County. Three of the five cases were habitual felon prosecutions. District Attorney Pat Nadolski told the media that his office aggressively prosecutes priority cases including violent crimes, habitual felons, and drug cases dealers. [Editor's note: I updated the post in response to a request for greater precision regarding the language used in Mr. Nadolski's statement.] The Greensboro News and Record story is here. A more detailed story from the Burlington Times-News, which includes a profile of each of the five cases in question, is here. A sense of the local reaction to the case may perhaps be gleaned from the comments on the latter story. In other news: Ervin to run again. Court of Appeals Judge Sam Ervin, who narrowly lost a bid for Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby’s seat in the last election, is again running for the high court. This time, he will be taking on colleague Bob Hunter in a race for the seat to be vacated by Justice Mark Martin, who is planning to run for Chief Justice Parker’s seat as she retires. Got all that? The Greensboro News and Record has the basics here. Fourth Circuit criticizes United States Attorney’s Office. The News and Observer ran this story this week, which begins: “In [...]
Faculty Coordinators
