A unanimous three-judge panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals issued a ruling this morning favoring Erwin in a lawsuit stemming from the death of a 3-year-old boy in a traffic accident after the town’s 2011 Christmas parade. The case is not over, but Appeals Court judges reversed a trial court’s ruling against the town. The new ruling allows the town to use a “sovereign immunity” defense against legal claims from the boy’s mother.
Among other opinions released from the Appeals Court this morning:
- A unanimous three-judge panel ordered a new trial for a woman convicted of murder in Transylvania County. Judges agreed that the trial court committed a “prejudicial error” by rejecting the defense’s objections to the prosecutor’s closing argument. Specifically, the objection focused on the prosecutor’s statement that a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity made it “very possible” that the defendant could be free in as few as 50 days.
