State of North Carolina v. Kevin Douglas Jones.

Summary

The court upheld defendant's first-degree murder conviction, rejecting challenges to the excusal of two prospective jurors and to the reasonable-doubt instruction. It held that the prosecutor's sentencing argument improperly invoked events outside the record and repeatedly disparaged defendant, and that the trial court abused its discretion by allowing the argument and failing to intervene. The death sentence was vacated and the case was remanded for a new capital sentencing proceeding.