Deathbed confession can be used at NC murder trial

SHELBY, N.C. — A North Carolina judge has ruled that a deathbed confession a granddaughter reported to police years later can be used at a trial in a 1966 slaying.

Multiple media outlets reported Wednesday that the decision was crucial for any possible trial on the charges confronting 80-year-old Thurman “Soupy” Price. He was charged with first-degree murder in 2007 after Lori Lail said her dying grandfather told her five years earlier that he and Price attacked and planned to rape an 11-year-old Shelby girl.

Lail said her grandfather told her that Price hit Brenda Sue Brown with a rock and killed her after she struggled.

Lail said she reported her grandfather’s confession only after The Shelby Star reported extensively about the slaying in 2006.

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