Death sought for slayings suspect
By John Stevenson : The Herald-Sun, Jan 18, 2007 : 10:41 pm ET
DURHAM -- Making his first court appearance since stepping away last week from the Duke lacrosse case, District Attorney Mike Nifong reiterated Thursday that he intends to seek the death penalty against a suspect in what reportedly was the only quadruple homicide in Durham history.
Nifong also reported that he had given defense lawyers 4,116 pages of documentation, plus a DVD and videotape, about the case in which Rodrick Vernard Duncan is accused of killing four men at a townhouse in the Breckenridge subdivision on Nov. 19, 2005. The site is off Hope Valley Road.
Thomas Maher, one of two attorneys representing Duncan, described the documentation as "massive" and said it would take him some time to go through it. -cut-
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-810574.cfm
Lawyer appointed to new judgeship
By John Stevenson : The Herald-Sun, Jan 18, 2007 : 10:41 pm ET
DURHAM -- Lawyer Drew Marsh was appointed Thursday to a newly created judgeship designed to help deal with wall-bursting, standing-room-only crowds that appear daily for criminal, traffic, juvenile and domestic cases in Durham.
The new district-level judgeship, Durham's seventh, was approved by the Legislature late last year. Funding went into effect Monday.
Among other things, the position will allow two sessions of a high-volume criminal court to be held simultaneously on some days, and child-support issues also will receive increased attention.
Thursday's appointment was made by Gov. Mike Easley.
The 48-year-old Marsh, a Durham native, said he was grateful for it. He long had expressed interest in becoming a judge and ran unsuccessfully for a bench seat in 2002.
Marsh is a 1975 Hillside High School graduate who received an undergraduate degree from Hampton Institute in Virginia -- now Hampton University -- in 1979 and a law degree from UNC three years later. -cut-
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-810572.cfm