Mr. Damon Chetson

When Damon Chetson ran for District Attorney in Wake County in 2022, and secured nearly 42 percent of the vote against a powerful incumbent, he did so because he doesn't back down from tough fights. And because he believes in the promise of the Criminal Justice system and its commitment that all people are innocent until proven guilty. In more that a decade in practice, Damon has defended clients in some of North Carolina's most serious and most notable cases. In 2019, he secured the only win in the federal government's largest prosecution in American history. That same year, he and co-counsel beat back the death penalty in a triple homicide in Wake Forest, North Carolina. He and another lawyer secured a hung jury in December of 2019 in a murder trial in Raleigh. And in 2021, Damon won a complete acquittal in a first degree murder case in Smithfield. In addition to his trial work, Mr. Chetson has been able to work out exceptional pleas, deferred prosecution agreements, and dismissal of charges in hundreds of other cases in more than a decade of practice. Damon is one of fewer than 100 Board Certified Specialists in State and Federal Criminal Law in the entire state of North Carolina. Mr. Chetson lives with his wife in Raleigh, and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (1994) and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2009, JD).