N.C. Supreme Court Vacates Two Death Sentences

The state Supreme Court vacated the death sentences of two men in separate cases Friday, ordering new sentencing hearings in which jurors could spare their lives. The rulings do not affect the guilty verdicts in the cases. New juries could either sentence the men to life in prison or reimpose the death penalty. In one case, the state's high court found that jurors who ordered the death sentence for Brandon Cabott Jones received improper instructions from the judge regarding a so-called "aggravating factor" in the crime. Jones was convicted of 1999 slayings of Donald James Hunt and Devan Lashawn Bynum in Gastonia. In the other case, the state's high court ordered a third sentencing hearing for Cornelius Alvin Nobles. Nobles was convicted in the shooting death of his wife, Ronita Nobles, in 1997 in Sampson County. He received a second sentencing hearing after the state Supreme Court found that his jurors received improper instructions. A second jury reimposed the death sentence. But in Friday's decision, the Supreme Court found that hearing also was flawed. It ruled that prosecutors improperly introduced a transcript of testimony from a victim of a previous crime committed by Nobles. The justices found that prosecutors failed to make an effort to have the witness testify, rather than use a transcript, thereby thwarting Noble's right to confront his accuser.