RALEIGH - The North Carolina Supreme Court heard an appeal Tuesday from an attorney for Mario McNeill, who was sentenced to death for the 2009 murder of five-year-old Shaniya Davis.
McNeill’s attorney said his client should receive a new trial because his previous lawyers disclosed privileged information during his trial.
However, the state said the evidence proved without a doubt that McNeill was guilty.
“Mr. McNeil would have been better off without any lawyers because if his condition of anonymity was not going to be honored, if he was not going to get any promise of a benefit protection for this evidence used against him, he could have done this himself,” said Andrew Desimone of the Defense.
“There was such overwhelming evidence in this case that a slight misstatement that the defendant didn’t even want to recall the jury’s attention to and was addressed by a curative instruction didn’t change the outcome of this trial, said Ann Middleton of the NC Dept. Justice.
The court did not announce a decision Tuesday.
McNeill is one of 150 killers on North Carolina’s death row.