RALEIGH, N.C. (AP/CBS 17) – The North Carolina Supreme Court has denied an effort to overturn the death penalty in the case of one of the state’s most infamous killers.
The state Supreme Court previously heard arguments that Mario Andrette McNeill’s death sentence should be thrown out.
However, in a statement released Friday, the court ruled there was no error in the trial.
“…we conclude that defendant received a fair trial and capital sentencing proceeding free of prejudicial error, and that the death sentence recommended by the jury and imposed by the trial court is not excessive or disproportionate,” the ruling said in part.
A Cumberland County jury deliberated for less than an hour in May 2013 before deciding that he should die for the 2009 death of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis.
Shaniya’s body was found six days after her mother reported her missing from their Fayetteville mobile home in a remote kudzu patch.
Searchers failed to find the girl’s body until McNeill’s lawyers told police where to look.