Free Republic

Gov. Beverly Perdue has proposed cutting prison beds. To help deal with the state's budget crisis, Perdue this week proposed closing five prisons, a prison hospital and a halfway house for women that are inefficient. The cuts would save $25 million over the next two years, but they would also eliminate space for 1,031 inmates at a time when the system could see an additional 2,300 inmates. Prison officials say they'll double up cells and put beds in day rooms. But the closures will put a crunch on a system with 40,644 inmates, slightly above capacity. Some legislators are calling...

Wiccan beliefs and sexual preferences will take center stage in the trial of a North Carolina man accused of killing his wife, unless the defendant has his way before the start of his trial on Halloween. ADVERTISEMENT Earlier this week, Robert James Petrick asked a Durham County Superior Court judge to keep all references to his neo-pagan religion and "sexual habits" out of his first-degree murder trial for the death of his wife, Janine Sutphen, a cellist with the Durham Symphony Orchestra, in January 2003. Judge Orlando Hudson is expected to rule on the motions before jury selection begins Monday...

CHARLOTTE, N.C.-- Police say one person is dead and two others are injured after an apartment break-in early Sunday morning on Mereview Court in southwest Charlotte. Police say someone kicked down the door of the apartment and several people were inside. The suspect then fired a gun, hitting one person in the chest. That person was taken to Carolinas Medical Center. Police say someone inside the apartment, who also had a gun, fired a fatal shot that hit the suspect. The suspect died on the back steps. They say another person inside the apartment was hospitalized with stab wounds. Police...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Authorities seized an arsenal of weapons and ammunition from the home of the man accused of killing three people and wounding a deputy in his former Forsyth County neighborhood, court papers said. Denny Carson Booth, 59, of East Bend was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder following Thursday night's shooting spree. Booth had sold his home in northeast Forsyth County and moved out about a month ago after years of fighting with his neighbor, Dwight Allen, 41. On Thursday, he returned to his old neighborhood armed with a rifle,...

For discussion and education purposes only.Greensboro, North Carolina-AP -- A North Carolina fifth-grader has been charged with assault for knocking out a boy in a school bus fight over a snack cake. (snip) ...According to the principal, when the boy sitting next to him asked for a bite, Kevin said no and was smacked in the face with a stuffed Tweety Bird. Kevin hit back, but was slammed against a window and hit in the back. Then he fell in the aisle and was stomped.School officials say when the bus driver pulled the aggressor off him, Kevin was unconscious.