You must post at a minimum of 350-500 words for your initial response. Begin your response with a high level overview of the case. Respond to the questions above as if the reader has no knowledge of the facts of the case.

Expressing an opinion is not enough. You will be evaluated on the consistency and quality of your posts to the weekly discussion board. I will primarily be looking for how well you support your comments. I expect you to work to make meaning of the material of the course. I look for depth of engagement, as well as level of critical thinking and inquiry. Success hinges on keeping up with readings, and referring to them as much as possible when you do respond.

Many, perhaps most, murder convictions are based on circumstantial evidence. When an appeals court reviews a jury verdict of guilty, the “insufficient evidence” claim will almost always be part of the appeal. Appellate courts do no easily over-throw a jury verdict based on the sufficiency of the evidence. **Read the opinion in State v. Carver, 725 S.E. 2nd 902 (N.C. App. 2014) . **Respond to the questions below in the Discussion Board for this unit. (You can access the discussion board directly from the link above and/or click next at the end of the page.

Q: What was the circumstantial evidence produced by the prosecution? Are you convinced? Do you think the “magic” of DNA evidence played a role in the verdict? Should it?

State v. Carver

you will be reading this