State v. Williams

BRANCH, Chief Justice.

Defendant’s brief brings forward forty-seven assignments of error with little semblance of continuity. We have therefore elected to consider the assignments of error under the general headings of pretrial motions, guilt phase of the trial, and sentencing phase of the trial.

I. Pretrial Motions

Defendant first assigns as error the denial of his pretrial motions for change of venue or in the alternative for a special venire due to the publicity his case had received prior to trial.

The record includes as exhibits articles which appeared in newspapers in the Cabarrus County…