I’m happy to report that the appeal has been filed. I read it last night and I believe his attorney presents a very strong case. She is asking that the Court either vacate the conviction or reverse the conviction and order a new trial.
The first appeal can only be based on improper or unconstitutional judicial rulings. I believe Blackman did an excellent job in identifying several issues that absolutely had an influence on the verdict. I have believed all along that Jason didn’t receive a fair trial, but I now have a much better understanding of the legal issues involved in this horrible case.
It’s worthwhile to take some time to read through the entire brief. It’s a complicated case but my understanding is that it was improper for the prosecutors to introduce new information at the second trial. They brought up the wrongful death suit and the child custody complaint. Neither of which were introduced in the first trial, which ended with a hung jury 8-4 in favor of his acquittal.
Judge Stephens presided over and ruled on the wrongful death suit AND both trials. The jury in the second trial heard this testimony from the clerk of courts. This should never have been before the jury.
Please understand that the reason Jason didn’t respond in either the wrongful death suit or the custody suit is because he would have been required to sit through a deposition. It certainly did not mean that he conceded to these charges or that he didn’t care about keeping custody of his daughter. If you remember, Brad Cooper did do the deposition in response to the custody suit and he was interrogated for 6+ hours. Police supplied the custody attorney with detailed questions. Police picked apart the testimony and prosecutors presented the jury with every minute detail that they described as an “inconsistency” . Though no significant inconsistencies were presented, the State called Brad a liar. Jason would have been subjected to the same thing. Attorneys will always inform their clients to remain silent. In the end, did Brad get his children back? No. He was indicted just weeks after the custody hearing. It’s a lose-lose situation for the accused and the State took full advantage of it. It’s extremely unethical. The jury didn’t understand this.
I won’t go through every point but I will comment on the fifth one – Did the court err in denying the motion to dismiss based on insufficient evidence? In my opinion, YES. There was absolutely no evidence presented of Jason’s involvement in Michelle’s murder. I’ll continue to follow this case and will keep this page up to date with all news related to the case. Support for Jason continues to grow as many more people become aware of the injustice.
Justice For Jason Young 
Reblogged this on Stop Wrongful Convictions.
His appeal brief is very well written and the arguments presented are very strong. His lawyer, Barbara Blackman, did a fine job on illustrating how the new evidence in the 2nd trial led to the guilty verdict…and without this new evidence of the civil suit and day care worker there more than likely would have been a different verdict.
What worries me the most is how emotionally involved people are with this case because of the media frenzy. I am afraid he will never get a fair trial in Raleigh, even if his appeal is granted. I pray that is not the case but it is hard for people like this to remove their personal opinions and look at the hard facts while using common sense.
I share your concerns. We just have to take things one step at a time though and hope for some honest people to review these cases and try our best to get the facts of the cases out there as much as possible. It would be nice if the media was more neutral.