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| Appeal for N.C. Death Row Inmate Starts After Six Years |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 06/04/2003 |
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Two defense attorneys, a prosecutor and a judge worked to determine what would be included in Boggess' file when it arrives at the N.C. Supreme Court. Although opposing attorneys often disagreed on what the file should contain, the end result of a meeting last week was that Boggess finally will be able to pursue his appeal. Boggess, 27, was convicted of first-degree murder in 1997 and was sentenced to die for fatally beating Wilmington student Danny Pence in woods in northern Durham County. The recent meeting was necessary because of unusual circumstances that twice put Boggess' appeal on hold. First, a court stenographer stopped work on the trial transcript, which attorneys needed to prepare an appeal. The stenographer, Patt McMann-Byrd, went to jail briefly rather than turn over the transcript for less than the $58,000 she said she was owed. Court officials ruled against McMann-Byrd and concluded that she deserved no more than $28,000. McMann-Byrd eventually completed the transcript to avoid being prosecuted. By that time, Boggess' appeal had been delayed more than a year. In March 1999, attorneys revealed that the tape recording of an important pretrial hearing for Boggess was lost. The tape was never found, and attorneys have attempted for nearly four years to reconstruct what was on it. By his own account and those of psychologists, Boggess was a homeless drifter at the time of the killing, living beneath a pier. He told psychologists he tried to kill himself 20 times. |
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