On March 7, 2000 a month long capital murder trial was concluded by James Davis.  His client was a 28 yr old white female with an IQ of 78, the average IQ is around 100.  She was accused of killing her father and was facing the death sentence. She testified for two days, there was a lot of forensic evidence pointing to her but she was found not guilty.  Davis’s father, a judge, told him “today might have been the day that you were born for.”

The first year seminar, Crime and Punishment, had a guest speaker on Tuesday, October 23rd.  James Davis, a Catawba alumni, was invited to speak to the class in order to answer some questions that had developed early on in the semester.  One question in particular was how could a lawyer defend a client that had murdered, raped, or committed another violent crime and had hurt another person.

When the class asked Davis how he was able to defend such people his response was that everybody deserves representation.  Davis hopes in the end the client will realize what he has done wrong.  If a person tells Davis they enjoyed what they did he has a private talk with them bringing subjects such as morality into the question.  He also makes the clients realize what they have done to the other person’s family and to their own family.

“Better 10 guilty men go free than an innocent man be punished” Davis quoted William Blackstone during the talk.  Davis is a firm believer in America’s policy of “innocent until proven guilty.”  He also believes that everybody should know “what they believe and why they believe it.”  According to Davis, athletes do well in law school because they do not give up.  Davis gave the class an overview of a typical criminal.  They generally have a lack of education, substance abuse problem, mental health issues, poor coping skills, and if they have ever been a victim it is easily translated into being a victimizer.

James Davis has the highest caseload within 50 miles and has been involved in over 100 jury trials.  Davis has been practicing law for over 23 years and is rated a super lawyer by his peers, which there are less than 10 in the state of North Carolina.  James Davis has been the attorney of record in 27 murders.  Currently, Davis has 6 murder cases under his belt.  His father, Judge Davis, wrote the bill on lethal injection.