Michael Hewlett

Winston-Salem

Reporter for The Assembly NC, covering criminal justice issues, movie enthusiast, music obsessor, pop culture consumer and poetry lover.

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Articles

Jefferson Griffin’s Gambit Scores a Win

2 weeks ago | theassemblync.com | Michael Hewlett |Anne Blythe

Jefferson Griffin’s gambit for a state Supreme Court seat has worked, for now. In a 2-1 ruling last week, the North Carolina Court of Appeals stopped short of giving Griffin everything he wanted, which is to throw out more than 65,000 legally cast ballots in hopes of ensuring his victory.
eCourts’ Continuing Legal Mess

2 weeks ago | theassemblync.com | Michael Hewlett

eCourts, North Carolina’s $100 million digital records system, has expanded throughout the state since its launch two years ago, but so have its legal woes. On Monday, a judge denied motions to dismiss claims against Tyler Technologies, the Texas-based company that designed eCourts, and Mecklenburg County Sheriff Gary L. McFadden in a federal lawsuit alleging the new system caused people to be wrongly arrested or detained too long.
Suit Alleges Deadly Indifference At Orange County Jail

3 weeks ago | indyweek.com | Michael Hewlett

This story originally published online at The Assembly. It’s been five years since Tiffany King lost her 34-year-old son. But walk through her Durham home or take a look at her arms, which are covered with tattoos commemorating her son, and it is as if Maurice King is still here. But one tattoo in particular reminds her that he’s not—22:22, military time for exactly when her son died on March 4, 2020.
A Bill to Bench Attorney General Jeff Jackson

3 weeks ago | theassemblync.com | Michael Hewlett

President Donald Trump has signed more than 100 executive orders since he took office less than three months ago. In turn, Democratic state attorneys general, including North Carolina’s Jeff Jackson, have rushed to file lawsuits challenging those actions. But if a new bill becomes law, Jackson would no longer be able to join the fight.
An N.C. Man Died in Orange County Jail. His Mother Wants Justice

1 month ago | theassemblync.com | Michael Hewlett

It’s been five years since Tiffany King lost her 34-year-old son. But walk through her Durham home or take a look at her arms, which are covered with tattoos commemorating her son, and it is as if Maurice King is still here. But one tattoo in particular reminds her that he’s not—22:22, military time for exactly when her son died on March 4, 2020. At the time, Maurice King was a federal inmate awaiting sentencing for drug charges at the Orange County Jail in Hillsborough.
The Docket: Briefs and Boxers

1 month ago | theassemblync.com | Michael Hewlett |Anne Blythe

As Jefferson Griffin’s bid to invalidate more than 65,000 votes in the state Supreme Court race moves into its fourth month, the voters behind that figure want to make sure their stories are heard. Monday was the deadline for filing briefs with the state Court of Appeals in regard to Griffin’s dispute with the state Board of Elections. A flurry of amicus briefs from voters and groups supporting them were filed Thursday.
Judge rejects plea from man accused of stabbing girlfriend to death

1 month ago | journalnow.com | Michael Hewlett

In a voice barely above a whisper, Ferjus Bernard Moore, accused of fatally stabbing his girlfriend nearly 40 times in 2014, struggled Friday morning to respond to questions from a Forsyth County judge about whether he understood the terms of the guilty plea he was about to enter. He consulted either with Dr. George Corvin, a psychiatrist, or Mark Rabil, one of his attorneys, to get clarification of what Judge David Hall of Forsyth Superior Court was asking.
Winston-Salem man gets 20 years in fatal shooting resulting from long-standing feud between neighbors

1 month ago | journalnow.com | Michael Hewlett

A long-running feud between two neighbors ended March 8, 2015, with one man fatally shooting the other man, then punching and kicking him as he lay dying, a Forsyth County prosecutor said in court Wednesday. Jose Augustiniano Rodriguez, 50, of the 2700 block of Urban Street pleaded guilty Wednesday in Forsyth Superior Court to second-degree murder in the death of Genaro Mariche Bracamontes, 54.
What This Johnston County Racial Justice Act Ruling Means for NC

2 months ago | theassemblync.com | Michael Hewlett

Nearly 15 years after Hasson Jamal Bacote first filed a claim under the Racial Justice Act, a judge ruled last week that racism not only significantly affected Bacote’s case, but pervaded every death penalty case ever tried in Johnston County. But the only relief Superior Court Judge Wayland Sermons Jr. could grant under the law had already been granted just weeks earlier, when outgoing Gov. Roy Cooper commuted the sentences of Bacote and 14 other death-row inmates to life in prison.
The Docket: No End in Sight

2 months ago | theassemblync.com | Michael Hewlett |Jeffrey C. Billman |Anne Blythe

A three-judge panel for the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals seemed likely to keep Jefferson Griffin’s legal challenge in state court—perhaps, in part, because the state Supreme Court tied their hands. Three months after Election Day, Griffin, a Republican Court of Appeals judge, has not conceded his apparent 734-vote loss to Democratic Justice Allison Riggs.