Motion in murder case questions race

Lawyers for a man facing the death penalty in connection with a triple slaying in 2008 have filed a grab bag of motions in the case – one alluding that race played a role in the state’s decision to try the defendant capitally.

            Theodore F. Cummings III and M. Victorio Jayne, both of Hickory, are the court-appointed defense attorneys for 52-year-old Stephen Monroe Buckner, formerly of 6905 U.S. 70 East in Nebo.

            Buckner was charged in January 2008 with three counts of first-degree murder in the killings of his live-in girlfriend, 42-year-old Vicky Lynn Lowery, Lowery’s daughter, 14-year-old Chelsea Nicole Gregory and Buckner’s own daughter, 25-year-old Rebecca Rose Buckner; one count of attempted first-degree murder for shooting then 21-year-old Gina Edwards; and six counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill for firing shots at McDowell County sheriff’s deputies Vic Hollifield, Randy Slagle, Dan Shook, Lynn Greene, Jennifer Trantham and Steve Hensley.

            Around 10 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 18, 2008, authorities were called to Buckner’s residence in reference to stabbings and gunshots. Officers arrived and were met with a barrage of bullets at the hands of Buckner. They returned fire and wounded him.

Detectives entered the house to find three dead. Edwards was able to escape. She told The McDowell News in an earlier interview that Vicky had intentions of leaving Buckner that weekend. He opened fire on everyone in the house that morning. Edwards, who was struck in the arm, played dead and was able to flee. Autopsy reports show Vicky and Rebecca were shot to death, and Chelsea was shot and stabbed.

Buckner’s trial is set to begin on Monday, Sept. 13.

            A week before the trial starts, a judge is scheduled to hear more than 25 motions filed by Cummings and Jayne, including those that would allow defense counsel to distribute a questionnaire to potential jurors; that would force the state to reveal any deals or concessions offered to potential witnesses; that would exclude photographs taken at the scene and certain statements made by the defendant; that would require witnesses to be sequestered during the trial; that would prohibit still photographers, TV cameras and microphones from the courtroom; and that would mean questioning potential jurors separately in relation to sensitive subjects like capital punishment, mental health issues, domestic violence and pre-trial publicity.

            Perhaps the most interesting of the motions is one that would require the state to answer a host of questions about race and how it relates to the prosecutor’s policies and procedures in determining whether or not to offer a plea to a defendant in a first-degree murder case and whether or not to seek the death penalty.

            The motion asks what factors are considered in determining if a case will be tried capitally or not, if efforts were made to compare the current case with past cases in which the death penalty was or was not sought, if any special precautions were taken to avoid the effect of race on the decision to seek the death penalty and the race of each employee in the district attorney’s office, among others.

            “The purpose of the present motion is to collect information from the State … that will demonstrate that race is a significant factor in seeking and imposing the death penalty is this case …” the court document states.

            The suspect and all of the victims in this case are white.

            The motion, defense lawyers contend, is relevant under the N.C. Racial Justice Act, a law that allows judges to block prosecutors from pursuing the death penalty if they find a historical pattern of racial bias in the use of capital punishment. It aims to prevent black defendants from being punished more harshly that whites.

            A recent study by researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Northeastern University in Boston found a convicted killer is three times more likely to get a death sentence in North Carolina if the victim is white rather than black. A little more than 1 percent of those suspected of killing blacks were sentenced to death, compared to nearly 4 percent of those suspected of killing whites, according to the study.

            If it proceeds, Buckner’s will be the first death penalty case tried by District Attorney Brad Greenway’s staff in McDowell County.