What remains unclear is whether his death behind bars will be a natural one or whether the state will execute him.
Let's hope a North Carolina jury does the right thing.
Posted on 04/20/2010 12:31:32 PM PDT by Drew68
WINSTON- SALEM - Demario James Atwater, one of two men charged with murdering UNC-Chapel Hill's student body president, will spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty Monday to federal carjacking, kidnapping and weapons charges.
What remains unclear is whether his death behind bars will be a natural one or whether the state will execute him.
Atwater, whose plea agreement with federal prosecutors allows him to avoid the death penalty in federal court, still faces capital charges in state court of kidnapping and murdering Eve Carson.
A hearing is tentatively scheduled for next week in Orange County Superior Court on the state charges. District Attorney Jim Woodall would not say whether any plea arrangements had been discussed.
Federal prosecutors rarely get involved in homicide cases such as Carson's, and it's not clear why they sought charges against Atwater.
"This may have been a way to secure cooperation to close a case against a co-defendant in state court," said Jim Cooney, a Charlotte lawyer who is not connected to the case.
Laurence Alvin Lovette, 19, also faces state murder and kidnapping charges in the Carson case. Lovette does not face the death penalty because he was 17 in March 2008 when Carson was found shot in a Chapel Hill neighborhood less than a mile from the campus. The U.S. Supreme Court deems anyone younger than 18 at the time of a crime too young for execution.
Atwater's federal plea came just before federal prosecutors and defense lawyers were to begin interviewing potential jurors for a trial that was to begin in May.
Atwater had asked for the federal trial to be moved out of state, saying that he feared the pool of jurors had been tainted by media exposure. But Judge James A. Beaty ruled last week against a change of venue.
Atwater will not be sentenced in the federal case until Sept. 23, according to court documents. But, according to federal prosecutors, Atwater acknowledged by his guilty plea that he would be sentenced to life in prison.
"A life sentence in the federal criminal justice system means just that: life without the possibility of parole or early release," Anna Mills Wagoner, U.S. attorney for the federal district that includes Orange and Durham counties, said in a prepared statement.
Though a judge and Atwater's attorneys were aware of the facts prosecutors had in the federal kidnapping and carjacking case, most of the details were filed under seal in federal court and not available to the public.
'Especially heinous'
In court documents that were public, investigators claimed that Atwater and Lovette kidnapped Carson early in the morning on March 5, 2008, and forced her to withdraw $1,400 from automated teller machines before they shot her numerous times with a .25-caliber handgun and a sawed-off shotgun.
Federal carjacking charges can carry a death sentence if prosecutors show the crime occurred during the commission of a homicide.
In some court documents, federal prosecutors listed aggravating factors that they planned to use in their push for the death penalty, including that the homicide was committed in such an "especially heinous, cruel and depraved manner" that it "involved torture and serious physical abuse to the victim."
Carson family approves
Carson's parents, Bob Carson and Teresa Bethke, released a brief statement Monday after the plea. Prosecutors and lawyers representing the Carson family have acknowledged that they are against the death penalty.
"While we deplore the evil and negligence that led to Eve's death, we agree with the U.S. Attorney's decision to accept the plea agreement," the Carsons' statement said. "We are very grateful for the dedication and hard work that have gone into the investigation and prosecution of this crime."
Wagoner said in a statement that the plea would spare Carson's family the "uncertainty and pain of a drawn-out trial and endless appeals.
"Eve Carson's murder was a senseless, random act of violence," Wagoner said. "We hope this resolution will help the Carson family put this horrendous act behind them, as best they can, and move on with their lives."
Comments have been disabled because of the nature of this story.
What remains unclear is whether his death behind bars will be a natural one or whether the state will execute him.
Let's hope a North Carolina jury does the right thing.
Yet another tragedy that’ll be ignored by the MSM.
Until we begin paying bonuses to Welfare queens NOT to breed (including a lifetime bonus of, say $20,000 if they have NO children at all) we will continue to lose trillions of dollars and our society will slide further into anarchy.
I wouldn’t care one way or the other, as long as he never draws another free breath of air again. Sometimes I think life in prison is a worse sentence than death.
The way the death penalty is administered, you're probably right.
The problem with keeping them alive is that we can't build prisons fast enough to hold these animals. At least execution frees up a bunk. I remember seeing this POS on the news after he was arrested. Someone interviewed him from jail and he acted proud and boastful of what he had done, murdering a defenseless young woman who had already complied with all their demands. His accomplice, on the other hand, was scared. He knew they were in big trouble.
Execute the little puke. In my grandfather’s day he would not have lasted long enough to go to trial.
This poor girls parents are AGAINST the death penalty for this sub-human?? They no doubt voted for Hussein as well. I wonder if they are concerned that he might have injured his hand on her face?
It is pathetic that they let their PC leftist beliefs triumph over justice in their daughter’s death.
I remember paying a lot of attention to this crime when it happened. If you follow the 'evecarson' keyword, there's a lot of threads on this crime from way back. If memory serves me right, these thugs didn't even try to get away with their crime. They were going from shop to shop using credit cards with Eve's name right on them completely oblivious to the fact that there was a manhunt going on. It was as if they totally lacked the capacity to comprehend what they had done. "Animal" is an apt term as these are predators lacking any impulse control and driven by immediate gratification.
If the father were a real man, he wouldn’t be able to “move on” until he found a way to break into the prison and torture this little savage to death....
Another disgusting black-on-white hate crime.
And yet Obama and Company, including Bill Clinton and Juan Williams, persist in pushing the myth that the blame for violent crime in America should be placed on the doorsteps of the Tea Party Movement and conservative radio talk show hosts.
In the past ten years, more people have been murdered by black Americans than all those killed at Oklahoma City.
“Execute the little puke. In my grandfather’s day he would not have lasted long enough to go to trial.”
I agree on the first part but I don’t pine for mob justice. I like the whole Constitution thing a little too much for that. What he deserves is a quick and fair trial before a jury of his peers followed by the maximum sentence possible. If he chooses to renounce his right to a trial then he deserves the maximum sentence possible. Deals that would get him out of his deserved sentence should not be cut.
Great.....DJ is free to kill again. There is only one way to protect society, and that is to execute convicted murderers quickly.
Really? I sure don't. We need to amend the USC to fix that little problem.
Fixed it.
Wait until the economy REALLY tanks (no ATMs, banks closed, supermarkets looted) to see what these remorseless feral savages are capable of.
We saw first hand on a local scale during Katrina. Naturally, Americans tried to convince themselves it wasn't really happening.
I would not want to make ANY judgment on these parents. I don’t know how I would react in this situation. They have gone through enough hell and will continue to go through hell.
Whatever, they want, as long as society has these monstors behind bars...its ok with me. I can in no way understand or feel what they are going through.
White victim. black perp. No racism here, right?
I’m sure a couple of cartons of cigarettes in the right hands could make sure that this animals life came to a sudden and violent end in fairly short order.
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