State v. Patterson

I dissent because I believe the trial court erred in considering for sentencing purposes information contained in records that had not been presented into evidence either at trial or at the sentencing hearing. As to the remainder of the majority opinion, however, I fully concur.

Although the formal rules of evidence do not apply in a sentencing hearing, such a hearing “must be fair and just” and provide the defendant with an “effective way of contradicting [any] damaging and prejudicial information.” State v. Locklear, 34 N.C. App. 37, 39-40, 237 S.E.2d 289, 291 (1977), rev’d on other grounds,…