On the morning of July 12th, Brad made two trips to the Harris Teeter store. Trip one was made to buy milk for Katie, his two year old daughter. A second trip at 6:40AM was made to pick up laundry detergent. During the second trip, Brad received a phone call on his cell phone from…
As many of you are aware, the State computer experts’ testimony wasn’t videotaped, so we were unable to hear it live. This was disappointing because it’s some of the most important testimony of the trial. Now that I’ve had an opportunity to read that portion of the transcript, I would like to share some of…
Brad’s cell phone is another subject worth discussing. Throughout the trial, prosecutors tried to suggest that Brad placed a 32 digit pass code on his cell phone and that he, or someone close to him deleted most of the data from the phone. They did this with full knowledge that it was Brad’s employer, Cisco…
I put together a flowchart of the investigation to try to simplify the case for those unfamiliar with it. I hope this is helpful.
Before watching the Cooper trial, I never paid much attention to trials. I always assumed that strong evidence must exist in these cases, otherwise we would see a lot more acquittals. I casually read the local news, never taking a close look at the specifics of the cases and without having the ability to view…
I previously covered the fact that Judge Gessner refused to allow any information about comments made by Bella Cooper that morning. I’ve now had a chance to review a few parts of the trial transcript that were blacked out and I want to highlight the magnitude of the exclusion of this information because it had…
Shortly after Nancy’s body was found, Investigator Grier mailed a letter to the medical examiner, Dr. Butts requesting a time of death and blood alcohol level. What I only recently realized is that he stated in his letter that Nancy was last seen alive shortly after midnight the morning of July 12th. She left the…
Having watched both the Cooper and Young trials, I couldn’t help noticing the conflicting ways in which the Wake county prosecutors addressed certain things. It seems there is a double standard when it comes to the importance of statements made by young children, the importance of eyewitnesses and the importance of evidence found at the…
Since following the Cooper trial and seeing so many factors that contributed to a very unfair trial, I’ve been trying to understand how the jury arrived at their verdict with so little concrete evidence. I’ve taken a look at several other cases that also appear to be wrongful convictions and I’m noticing a pattern. In…
Recently I came across a law blog written by attorney Jeremy Rosenthal. He discussed the importance of proving that computer evidence can be linked to the accused with absolute certainty. From his article: The biggest challenge for the prosecutor is to ‘put the Defendant’s fingers on the keyboard.’ In other words, the prosecutor must show…
