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Thread: David Gainey - North Carolina

  1. #1
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    David Gainey - North Carolina

    Facts of the Crime:

    Defendant was indicted on 13 April 1998 for one count of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree kidnapping, and one count of robbery with a dangerous weapon. The cases came on for a joint trial at the 28 June 1999 Criminal Session of Superior Court, Harnett County. The victim was Dwayne Winfield McNeill.

    On 9 July 1999, the jury returned a verdict of guilty, and following acapital sentencing proceeding, recommended a sentence of death for the first-degree murder. Defendant was sentenced to death and further received a sentence of 117 to 150 months' imprisonment for robbery with a dangerous weapon. The trial court also sentenced defendant to a consecutive term of 46 to 65 months' imprisonment for second-degree kidnapping, finding that the first-degree kidnapping was subsumed in the first-degree murder conviction. For the reasons that follow, we conclude that defendant's trial and sentences, including specifically his capital sentencing proceeding, were free of prejudicial error and that defendant's sentence of death is not disproportionate.

  2. #2
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Judge Overturns Conviction for David Gainey NC DR in 1999 Murder

    A convicted murderer on death row has been granted a new trial after a judge determined that his lawyers failed him during trial and that prosecutors withheld evidence that could have exonerated him.

    David Gainey was sentenced to die in 1999 for the death of Dwayne McNeill, a 20-year-old who was shot to death in Harnett County the year before. Superior Court Judge Gregory Weeks granted Gainey a new trial this month after Gainey's new attorneys argued that his first one was so botched that he deserved another.

    According to Weeks' order, the state's evidence hinged on Gainey's confession. But the details of his confession, the judge notes, don't match the evidence detectives collected. Gainey offered the wrong location for the shooting, the wrong time of the incident and an implausible description of McNeill's final actions.

    Gainey's confession was the third version of events he offered detectives. After the first two, detectives expressed doubt in his story and subjected Gainey to a lie detector test. After telling him he failed, each time he offered another version of events.

    Weeks, the judge, faults Gainey's original lawyers for not consulting an expert on false confessions. Gainey's attorneys at the 1999 trial, David Hartley and Charlene Edwards, offered no evidence in the proceedings.

    The judge found that some evidence suggested that Gainey's brother, Michael Gainey, actually killed McNeill. According to the order, prosecutor Peter Strickland knew about the evidence that Gainey's brother could have been the shooter but did not provide the information to defense counsel.

    The judge also faulted Strickland for withholding the name of a person who called McNeill's father after his disappearance to offer information about the crime. Also in the state's files was a report saying that the victim was seen by his grandparents hours after Gainey claims he killed McNeill; Gainey's lawyers did not get that report either.

    Gainey's original lawyers had made several requests before his trial for all evidence and other information collected in the case.

    A spokeswoman for the Attorney General said they have made no decision yet about whether to appeal Weeks' order.

    If they don't or if an appeal is denied, Johnston County District Attorney Susan Doyle must then decide how to proceed. Doyle, who was not the district attorney at the time, may choose to retry Gainey and again seek the death penalty or consider a lesser charge or plea arrangement.

    Gainey remains imprisoned at Central Prison, where he has been for the past 10 years.

    http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1571997.html

  3. #3
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On November 4, 2010, the North Carolina Supreme Court denied the State of North Carolina's petition to have Superior Court Judge Gregory A. Weeks order to have the convictions of first degree murder, kidnapping and robbery with a dangerous weapon be reversed and awarded a new trial. Inmate Gainey was released to Harnett County on November 19, 2010.

    http://www.doc.state.nc.us/DOP/deathpenalty/removed.htm

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