State Sen. Ed Jones has filed a bill that would bump up the penalty for second-degree murder.

The legislation was filed Thursday, a day after a Winston-Salem murder that became the impetus for the bill reached an apparent resolution in state court, Dan Kane reports.

According to the Winston-Salem Journal, Aaron Jarrett Jr., 40, was sentenced to a minimum of 31 years in prison for killing Philnando O'Neal.

Jarrett pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed robbery. He had originally been charged with first-degree murder, which could have resulted in life behind bars or a death sentence.

O'Neal's mother, Mary Lyons of Elizabeth City, had protested the plea deal after learning that a second-degree murder conviction could bring as little as just under eight years in prison. She spoke to Jones, a Halifax County Democrat, who agreed to boost the penalty for a conviction to a minimum of 12 years.

The N.C. Conference of District Attorneys supports the legislation, which representatives say could lead to fewer first-degree murder cases. A recent state Office of Indigent Defense Services report found that the cost of providing legal help to poor defendants has risen steeply in the last several years because prosecutors are leaving many murder cases open to the death penalty, despite the fact that few result in a death sentence.

The executive directors of the nonprofit Center for Death Penalty Litigation and the state Office of Indigent Defense Services have swapped seats, so to speak.

The center this week announced that Malcolm 'Tye' Hunter is the new executive director after retiring from leading the indigent services office the past eight years, Dan Kane reports.

Hunter replaces Thomas Maher, who became executive director of the indigent services office last month.

The center represents death row inmates and assists lawyers who represent clients facing the death penalty in North Carolina.

Hunter has served on the Durham-based center's board of directors, and has a long history aiding death row inmates as a co-founder of the N.C. Resource Center and as the state's appellate defender. He successfully argued a 1990 case before the U.S. Supreme Court that resulted in new sentencing hearings for more than 40 prisoners on death row.

The N.C. Office of Indigent Defense Services will have a new executive director in December: veteran defense attorney Thomas Maher.

Maher replaces Tye Hunter, the office's founding executive director, who plans to retire then, reports Dan Kane. Since 2006, Maher has been executive director for the Center for Death Penalty Litigation in Durham. He is a 1982 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill's law school and was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1985.

"Tom Maher is perfectly situated by intellect, experience, and temperament to lead the Office of Indigent Defense Services," said Joseph B. Cheshire V, the chairman of the office's commission.

Lawmakers created the office in 2000 to oversee legal representation for indigent defendants and others who may be entitled to legal services under state law. Maher will make $123,022 a year.