by Susan Dickson
Staff Writer
Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall announced on Monday that the state will seek the death penalty against Demario James Atwater in the slaying of UNC Student Body President Eve Carson.
Atwater, 22, is one of two suspects charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of Carson. The state cannot seek the death penalty against suspect Laurence Alvin Lovette because he is 17.
An Orange County jury has not sentenced anyone to death since 1973 and no one has been executed for crimes committed in Orange County since 1948.
“It’s always a real hard decision [to seek the death penalty], and that’s why I didn’t do it quickly,†Woodall said.
Carson, an Athens, Ga. native who came to UNC as a Morehead-Cain scholar, was shot and killed in a robbery during the early-morning hours of March 5.
Police believe Atwater shot Carson once in the head with a shotgun and that Laurence Alvin Lovette shot her four times with a handgun. A confidential informant told police that Atwater and Lovette entered Carson’s home through an unlocked door, forced her into her car and drove her to an ATM.
Police apprehended the suspects in March after releasing photos of them using Carson’s ATM card and driving what appeared to be her 2005 Toyota Highlander.
To seek the death penalty for an offender, the state is required to present at least one aggravating factor.
“We alleged at least three exist in this case,†Woodall said. According to Woodall, the state alleges that the murder was committed during the commission of an armed robbery, burglary or kidnapping; the murder was committed for monetary gain; and the murder was heinous, atrocious and cruel.
Woodall said prior to his decision, he had discussions with Atwater’s defense attorneys, as well as with the Carson family, adding that he knew his decision might be unpopular in Orange County.
“The community simply may not support the death penalty in Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County … but you can’t make the decision based on taking a poll,†Woodall said. “The law in North Carolina is that if there are aggravating factors, the state can go forward.… [As district attorney] you take an oath to uphold the law, even if you disagree with it.â€
Woodall said the trial could start by next summer at the earliest.
Stephen Dear, executive director of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty (PFADP), said he was disappointed to hear Woodall’s announcement.
“The bottom line is the death penalty is an institutional anachronism that no longer has a place in our society, and I can’t imagine Eve Carson wanting her life remembered as one that continued the cycle of violence in our community,†he said. “That’s what the death penalty does. Through racial and class bias, it perpetuates violence.
“Eve Carson was all about life and love and kindness, from what I have heard of her,†he added.
Dear said PFADP plans to get the community involved in the discussion regarding the case.
“We want the community to really consider the death penalty, as it’s hit home so tragically,†he said.
According to Dear, 33 counties in North Carolina have not sent anyone to death row since the early 1970s.
“The irony of this tragedy is that UNC had just spent a year offering a variety of educational and artistic programs exploring the death penalty in all its dimensions, and then the school loses its beloved student president in a violent, senseless murder,†he said.
Summer reading for 2007 rising UNC freshmen was Sister Helen Prejean’s The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions and the university held a number of discussions about the death penalty throughout the year.
Bill Massengale, a Chapel Hill attorney who works on death penalty appeals in post-conviction cases, said cases in which the state pursues the death penalty can drag on for years, offering little closure to friends and families of victims.
Massengale said he has cases that are over 20 years old. For one of his cases, the family of the victim comes back to court “time after time after time.â€
“It brings absolutely no closure to anyone,†he said.
Massengale said North Carolina used to have about 30 to 40 death sentences a year, but that has sharply declined as the state has turned to life without parole as a sentence for offenders. The last death sentence in the state was in Moore County in October 2007.
“The alternative to a death verdict, a life without parole, is a very terrible penalty,†Massengale said. “If these guys were just put in prison for life without parole, [the family and friends of victims] would be able to go back to living.â€
The court will hear motions regarding the Carson case in September.
Who says the death penalty is an institutional anachronism? Is it those who live in white towers, who do not face the daily pressures that the rest of have, who have guaranteed pensions and tenure? It must be nice to live in a fairyland.
Closure, how much closure does the Carson family have knowing that each day Eve’s killers can breathe fresh air, know that they can associate with their hommies, receive an education, or not, visit the exercise gym, and in general live until old age takes them from this earth.
The guards have a worse environment that many of the criminals.
Please don’t give your platitudes, until you or your loved ones face death at the hands of those who have no regard for others. I believe that a sign of civilized society is that it removes such cancers before they can do harm to others, show me where that is a less viable view of a civilized society.
How dare this “Stephen Dear” assume to know what Eve would want. Especially with these two worthless parasites.
Let Him Die! Knowbody can say what Eve would’ve wanted,BUT,Letting him know he’s going 2 Die,day in day out for the next 10 year’s will Kill him from the inside out! Bastard!
the hell with these 2 fools, also, is stephen dear getting taxpayer dollars for his dopey crusade? also how about unc one sided stance on the death penalty?