Notable Case Victories

Notable Cases

• JAMES PAYNE LAW: NC MEDICAL EXAMINERS REPORT SHOWS FARMWORKER DIED FROM PRE-EXISTING CONDITION NOT A HEAT RELATED FATALITY.
• W. James Payne secures 10-2 hung jury in a highly charged rape case in which an immigrant tradesman was wrongfully accused. State of North Carolina vs. Ernesto Cruz Martinez, July 2024.
• W. James Payne obtained a partial acquittal in a federal gun trafficking case in the Eastern District of North Carolina, United States vs. Kojo Owusu Dartey, April 2024.
• W. James Payne negotiated an unprecedented a term of years plea, avoiding a life sentence or the death penalty, in a brutal spousal homicide, resulting in a first-ever agreement with a long-standing career prosecutor. State of North Carolina vs. Winfield Smith, July 2024.
• W. James Payne earns acquittal of a police officer charged with homicide while in the line of duty. State of North Carolina vs. Byron Vassey, May 2016.
• W. James Payne wins a judicial exoneration of a first-degree murder case prosecuted by the notorious Joe Freeman Britt, who at one time had the Guinness Book of Records for the most death penalty verdicts in the country. State of North Carolina vs. Leon Brown, September 2014
• W. James Payne avoids a death-penalty conviction and instead obtains a Life Verdict for a first-degree murder trial (6 victims) with a prior first-degree murder conviction. Achieved a jury deadlock on life or death for three days, forcing a mistrial and a verdict of Life. State of North Carolina vs. Danny Thomas, October 2013
• W. James Payne clears a jailer from a federal investigation for the death of an inmate, and the United States Government ultimately closed the investigation