The N.C. Supreme Court has ruled, 5-0, that the N.C. Court of Appeals was acting within its authority when it reversed a trial court’s order to free Larry Stubbs, who had been imprisoned since 1973 on a second-degree burglary charge. Stubbs had argued in a Cumberland County courtroom in 2011 that a life sentence for the burglary charge was “grossly disproportionate” and amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment.” The trial judge agreed, but the N.C. Court of Appeals reversed that judge’s decision in a split ruling.