State v. Payne

WHICHARD, Justice.

This appeal is from a resentencing proceeding. In 1985 at defendant’s first trial, he was convicted of the first-degree rape and first-degree murder of Kathleen Weaver, a sixty-nine-year-old widow, and sentenced to death for the murder and a consecutive mandatory life sentence for the rape. On defendant’s first appeal, we ordered a new trial. See State v. Payne, 320 N.C. 138, 357 S.E.2d 612 (1987). In 1988 at defendant’s second trial, he again was convicted of the first-degree rape and first-degree murder of Kathleen Weaver. He was sentenced to mandatory life imprisonment…