Traffic court is full. People sit chin in hand, eyelids heavy. Some stomp out of the courtroom, then return a few minutes later. Others grimace, checking…
Posts published in “Courthouse Project”
Judge Michael O’Foghludha tried to calm the defendant who wore the mask with the backwards swastika. “Don’t get upset,” the judge said in soothing…
Outside the closed doors of Courtroom 6A one recent Tuesday morning, 24 potential jurors waited in a line, single file. They shared anxious glances with…
Fifteen years ago, Edelmar Arnoldo Borrayes Cifuentes immigrated from Guatemala to Cary, North Carolina. He got a job in construction, found a house, and made…
At 8:53 a.m., a short, ragged line forms on the plaza of the Durham County Courthouse. Retractable ropes funnel arrivals toward the single entrance —…
On a sunny September morning, the picture window near Courtroom 4D is framed by blue sky. It’s around 9:10 a.m. in the Durham County Courthouse…
The sound of metal leg cuffs pierced the hum of shuffled papers and creaky benches as Juan Gomez entered Courtroom 5A. For the half-hour Gomez…
An ongoing reform agenda. A spike in violent crime, and its impact on Durham’s justice system. COVID-cordoned courtrooms. Those are among the many issues our…
On the eighth floor of the Durham courthouse, a beige tower that is home to the county’s criminal justice system, you will find the office…
Court officials separated by glass dividers, seats taped off to create additional distance, and jurors scattered in the courtroom gallery where the public sits. In…