State v. Defoe

TIMMONS-GOODSON, Justice.

The issue presented in these cases is whether the General Assembly’s 2001 amendments1 to the capital punishment statutes abrogated this Court’s decision in State v. Rorie, 348 N.C. 266, 500 S.E.2d 77 (1998), so that the superior courts now have authority to declare a case noncapital as a sanction for the State’s noncompliance with Rule 24 of the General Rules of Practice for the Superior and District Courts. We hold that the 2001 amendments eliminated the rationale on which Rorie was decided, and thus, legislatively abrogated our holding. However, there is an…