On the heels of the surprising guilty verdict from Raleigh this afternoon, when the Wake County jury found Bradley Cooper guilty of killing his wife Nancy near their Cary, North Carolina home, Cooper was immediately sentenced to life in prison by Judge Paul Gessner. “Life” has meant different things at various times and in various jurisdictions. For some people sentenced to “life” it has meant a minimum of 20 years, with the possibility to earn “good behavior” and other time credits and get out of jail at some point. Mr. Cooper will not be eligible for release from prison at any point short of a future acquittal. In North Carolina, the only sentence available for someone found guilty of First-Degree Murder (as Cooper was) is “life in prison without the possibility of parole”. Since the implementation of structured sentencing in 1994, life without parole means exactly that: Unless Brad Cooper wins an appeal, he will remain in prison until the day he dies.
If you have comments or questions about this blog post we invite you to submit your comments below. If you are in Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, or anywhere in North Carolina and have questions about a legal matter you may contact the Taibi Kornbluth Law Group directly at contact@taibikornbluth.com or visit us at http://www.taibikornbluth.com
A sad day, and a miscarriage of justice.
ReplyDeleteImmediately after dismissing the court, Judge Gessner was overhead by all listening to the live feed, his "hot" mic active; he was speaking to someone on the phone, where he said, "totally emotionless" in response to the person's question, then opined that "he got his shit"... all while sitting on the bench.
It wasn't until the Asst. DA got up and notified the judge that his comments were carried live to the blogosphere that the red-faced judge was assisted in turning off the microphone.
Judge Gessner made many, many rulings that were clear errors of law; from denying full discovery to the defense to admitting hearsay from the prosecution to refusing to permit an expert for the defense testify, this case will surely be overturned on appeal. I will be surprised if he isn't disbarred because of his abuses in this trial.
Thank you for your comments.
ReplyDeleteThe outcome of any appeal is of course far from certain. Many observers feel the case was mishandled, and that the jury got it wrong, but there are still significant hurdles for the defense to overcome in order to get the conviction overturned. I have to expect that we will be watching this play out for quite some time yet.