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
NAACP chief lauds Cooper
Barber says he appreciates AG's approach to Duke case
Anne Blythe, Staff Writer, N&O, Jan 19, 2007 03:06 AM
DURHAM - The leader of the state NAACP says he is heartened by State Attorney General Roy Cooper's promise to review Duke lacrosse case evidence "with blinders on" and to "go wherever the facts lead."
The Rev. William J. Barber, president of the state conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, summoned reporters Thursday after receiving numerous requests from the national media for comment on District Attorney Mike Nifong's decision last week to hand off the case to special prosecutors.
After applauding Cooper's pledge to approach the case with an unbiased eye, Barber added that special prosecutors "would not be turned aside by public opinion, by reports in the media where the judge or the courts have not spoken, that they would put blinders on."
On at least three occasions since an escort service dancer alleged that she was gang-raped at a Duke lacrosse team party in March, Barber has urged people not to rush to judgment of the accuser or the accused.
The organization has issued a 10-point statement, and Barber reiterated many of those sweeping points Thursday. They include:
* Denouncing any "code of silence" that would inhibit a gathering of the facts.
* Urging deep compassion for the accuser and concern for any attempts to demean or destroy her "rather than to seek and ascertain the truth."
* Urging a thorough investigation and serious consequences if the allegations are proved.
* Monitoring the legal process and ensuring that the investigation of the allegations is "fair, meticulous, comprehensive, aggressive and thorough."
* Insisting that there be no shortcuts to justice and demanding that the alleged perpetrators have rights to be protected.
Irving Joyner, a law professor at N.C. Central University, and Al McSurely, a Chapel Hill civil rights lawyer, have been monitoring the case for the NAACP.
Last year, after Nifong's early statements and the defense team's response, the NAACP urged the N.C. State Bar and the Durham judge overseeing the case at that time to call for a "quiet zone" to minimize the public release of evidence before court hearings.
"Nobody knows the totality of the facts," Barber said Thursday. "What the attorney general says is, 'We're going to start from ground zero.' "
McSurely, who attended the news conference, has criticized media coverage of the case. He asserted that defense attorneys were trying to sway public opinion in favor of the accused by using a two-pronged attack -- on the character of the accuser and Nifong.
McSurely said that he had not read all the documents filed in the case nor had he listened to testimony.
Defense attorneys have said their comments came in response to Nifong's early public condemnation of the lacrosse team and because of his insistence that a crime occurred.
"I do think there's a question that the ID might not be good on one or two of [the accused]," McSurely said.
http://www.newsobserver.com/145/story/533946.html