STORY: "Brad Cooper murder conviction up for appeal Tuesday," published by WRAL on April 9, 2013.
GIST: "The North Carolina Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments Tuesday morning in the high-profile case of a Cary man serving life in prison for strangling his wife and dumping her body in an unfinished housing development nearly five years ago. Brad Cooper, 39, was found guilty in May 2011 of first-degree murder in the July 2008 death of 34-year-old Nancy Cooper, whose body was found in a drainage ditch in a cul-de-sac of an undeveloped subdivision near their Cary home. The appeal of his conviction will be heard before a three-judge appellate panel at 9:30 a.m. and will be streamed live on WRAL.com. Arguments in the case focus on three rulings that a Wake County Superior Court judge made regarding a Google Maps search of the site where Nancy Cooper's body was found – the only concrete evidence linking Brad Cooper to the crime. The state argued the search was made the day before Nancy Cooper disappeared, but defense attorneys claimed the computer had been hacked and that the evidence had been planted on the machine. The judge ruled that two witnesses the defense presented to support their argument, however, could not testify. One was a network security professional but wasn't qualified as a forensics computer analyst. The second witness wasn't allowed, partly because the judge found that his name was not on a potential witness list as required by law......... Defense attorneys argued that Nancy Cooper went jogging on the morning of her death and never returned home. The investigation into her death was marred by "dishonest" and "inept" police work, they said, alleging that investigators never looked beyond Brad Cooper as a suspect because they were concerned that a random murder would tarnish Cary's reputation as a safe community. Jurors deliberated for three days before returning their guilty verdict.
The jury foreman said a month after the trial that the map evidence "drove the outcome" of the case and caused "a lot of the other circumstantial evidence to become relevant and credible." Brad Cooper's defense attorney, Howard Kurtz, has said he is hopeful for an appeal and believes "we have a tremendously good chance."
The entire story can be found at:
GIST: "The North Carolina Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments Tuesday morning in the high-profile case of a Cary man serving life in prison for strangling his wife and dumping her body in an unfinished housing development nearly five years ago. Brad Cooper, 39, was found guilty in May 2011 of first-degree murder in the July 2008 death of 34-year-old Nancy Cooper, whose body was found in a drainage ditch in a cul-de-sac of an undeveloped subdivision near their Cary home. The appeal of his conviction will be heard before a three-judge appellate panel at 9:30 a.m. and will be streamed live on WRAL.com. Arguments in the case focus on three rulings that a Wake County Superior Court judge made regarding a Google Maps search of the site where Nancy Cooper's body was found – the only concrete evidence linking Brad Cooper to the crime. The state argued the search was made the day before Nancy Cooper disappeared, but defense attorneys claimed the computer had been hacked and that the evidence had been planted on the machine. The judge ruled that two witnesses the defense presented to support their argument, however, could not testify. One was a network security professional but wasn't qualified as a forensics computer analyst. The second witness wasn't allowed, partly because the judge found that his name was not on a potential witness list as required by law......... Defense attorneys argued that Nancy Cooper went jogging on the morning of her death and never returned home. The investigation into her death was marred by "dishonest" and "inept" police work, they said, alleging that investigators never looked beyond Brad Cooper as a suspect because they were concerned that a random murder would tarnish Cary's reputation as a safe community. Jurors deliberated for three days before returning their guilty verdict.
The jury foreman said a month after the trial that the map evidence "drove the outcome" of the case and caused "a lot of the other circumstantial evidence to become relevant and credible." Brad Cooper's defense attorney, Howard Kurtz, has said he is hopeful for an appeal and believes "we have a tremendously good chance."
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.wral.com/brad-cooper-conviction-goes-before-nc-appeals-court-tuesday/12318089/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
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