Only one week left.
Monday: The Raleigh skyline seen from the Dorothea Dix campus. In an interview Monday, July 14, 2014, Mayor Nancy McFarlane voiced her frustrations about the slow negotiations over the Dorothea Dix property, the former psychiatric hospital campus that the city wishes to purchase from the state to use as a public park.
Tuesday: Jennifer Hall makes a drink at Sola Coffee Cafe in Raleigh on Tuesday, June 15, 2014. Sola Coffee Cafe is a member of the Greater Raleigh Merchants Alliance and its Shop Local Raleigh campaign, which promotes and supports locally-owned, independent businesses.
Wednesday: Steven Dembinski uses a machine at the AFEX warehouse in Raleigh to make nuts for a fire-suppressant system Wednesday, July 16, 2014. Using credit insurance through the Export-Import Bank, the Raleigh-based company makes fire-suppressant systems for off-road equipment.
Thursday: A Silvery Checkerspot butterfly lands on a black-eyed Susan at the North Carolina Botanical Garden on Thursday, July 17, 2014.
Fable Barker, 2, explores the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill with her mother, Megan Barker, on Thursday, July 17, 2014. The family roamed the garden while visiting Chapel Hill from Asheville.
On Friday, I was sent to cover the Lovette trial in Durham. Laurence Lovette is accused of murdering Duke University graduate student Abhijit Mahato in January of 2008. Lovette and Demario Atwater are serving life sentences for killing UNC-Chapel Hill Student Body President Eve Carson on March 5, 2008. This was a completely new experience for me. I've never witnessed a jury trial apart from watching "How to Kill a Mockingbird" and various crime shows. It was a weird feeling to be in that courtroom and watch Lovette interact with his attorneys. This wasn't a movie or a TV show; this was real life.
Friday: Defense attorney Kevin Bradley, left, and defendant Laurence Lovette listen to the opening statements in Durham Superior Court on Friday, July 18, 2014 in Durham. Lovette is accused of murdering Abhijit Mahato, a Duke grad student in 2008.
Lovette listens to testimony.
Judge Jim Hardin instructs the jury.