Saturday, February 1, 2014

Bulletin; Brad Cooper; North Carolina; Brief court hearing after Supreme Court gave the green light to a new trial - trial judge had not allowed the defence to call expert witnesses to testify that someone may have tampered with his computer - but no trial date yet. WRAL;



A Cary man convicted more than two years ago of killing his wife made a brief court appearance Thursday afternoon, where he was appointed a new defense attorney in the case and was ordered held without bond until a bond hearing can take place. Last week, the North Carolina Supreme Court declined, without comment, to hear the state's appeal of a lower court's ruling that Brad Cooper get a new trial after a judge erred in the 40-year-old's 2011 murder trial for the death of Nancy Cooper. Her body was found in an undeveloped subdivision 3 miles from the couple's Cary home in July 2008. Brad Cooper was arrested approximately three months later, and a jury found him guilty in May 2011 after a 10-week trial. He has maintained that his wife went jogging and never returned, but prosecutors argued he strangled her after a neighborhood party. The state's case was mostly circumstantial with the exception of Internet files on Brad Cooper's laptop of a Google Maps search that was made the day before Nancy Cooper disappeared. His appeal focused on the computer evidence and the presiding judge's decision not to allow defense witnesses to testify about the possibility that someone might have tampered with the computer. It's still unclear when the case might be retried.........Howard Kurtz, who represented Cooper in his first trial, on Friday took to his law firm's website to praise the state Supreme Court's ruling. "As criminal defense lawyers, it was excruciating to be prepared to defend our client with strong expert testimony that was unreasonably concealed from the jury," Kurtz wrote. "Our only relief comes now as we learn that Brad Cooper will be entitled to a full defense and that the jury will now be entitled to hear it."

The entire story can be found at:

http://www.wral.com/awaiting-new-trial-brad-cooper-makes-brief-court-appearance/13346083/

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.

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/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html

I look forward to hearing from readers at:

hlevy15@gmail.com