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A judge today dismissed a lawsuit prompted by outcry over the inability of Muslims to be sworn in Guilford County courts using the Quran, a lawyer in the case said. In throwing out the case, Superior Court Judge Donald L. Smith decided that no controversy existed because the plaintiff was still able to affirm she could truthfully testify despite not being allowed to swear on the Quran, attorney Seth Cohen said. The plaintiffs in the case were the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina and Greensboro Muslim Syidah Mateen. The defendant was the state of North Carolina because the...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- A man was executed early Friday by lethal injection for the 1990 stabbing death of his wife, despite the pleas of his four children who sought clemency for their father. Elias Syriani, 67, was pronounced dead at 2:12 a.m. EST, said Pam Walker, a spokeswoman for the state Correction Department. Gov. Mike Easley on Thursday had denied clemency, saying in a statement that he found "no convincing reason to grant clemency and overturn the unanimous jury verdict affirmed by the state and federal courts." Syriani was convicted in the death of his 40-year-old wife, Teresa, who...

Wiccan beliefs and sexual preferences will take center stage in the trial of a North Carolina man accused of killing his wife, unless the defendant has his way before the start of his trial on Halloween. ADVERTISEMENT Earlier this week, Robert James Petrick asked a Durham County Superior Court judge to keep all references to his neo-pagan religion and "sexual habits" out of his first-degree murder trial for the death of his wife, Janine Sutphen, a cellist with the Durham Symphony Orchestra, in January 2003. Judge Orlando Hudson is expected to rule on the motions before jury selection begins Monday...

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- A lawsuit filed over the use of non-Christian texts for courtroom oaths should be dismissed because there is no controversy between the parties to settle, the state argues in its response filed this week. The state attorney general's office also said the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, which filed the lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court in July, lacks the right to sue. The lawsuit does not name anyone who has been denied the opportunity to take a religious oath on a non-Christian book, but ACLU attorney Seth Cohen doesn't believe that's necessary. The suit...

RALEIGH, N.C. -- In an unusual move by the N.C. State Bar, the regulatory group has charged a former district attorney and his assistant with prosecutorial misconduct in a 1996 murder case that ended in a death sentence. (snip) Last week, the bar filed the charges of prosecutorial misconduct against Kenneth Honeycutt, the former district attorney of Union County, and his assistant, Scott Brewer. The bar charged that Honeycutt and Brewer each committed 23 violations of the rules that govern lawyers. In the past decade, the bar has only disciplined four prosecutors for misconduct. Honeycutt and Brewer lied to the...

RALEIGH -- For the second time in two years, state trial court Judge Evelyn Hill's remarks from the bench have earned a defendant a new trial -- this time a convicted sex offender. The state Court of Appeals on Tuesday ordered a retrial for Douglas Shane Wright, 31, of Burlington, convicted in October 2003 of two counts of taking indecent liberties with a child. He had been sentenced to four to five years in prison. Since her elevation from Wake County prosecutor to elected judge five years ago, Hill has been reprimanded twice for misbehaving and had one other conviction...

LUMBERTON - Robeson County District Attorney Johnson Britt can't believe a jury found Tina Locklear not guilty of beating her 2-year-old daughter to death. The jury did convict Locklear of abusing the child, which caused more confusion for Britt. "I don't understand the verdict the jury brought because the child abuse was the cause of the death," Britt said. "It is one of the most, if not the most, stunning cases in which I've been involved. I have no explanation for what happened." The jury on Friday convicted Locklear, 28, of felony child abuse inflicting serious injury, while finding her...