Articles on Procedure

Some guilty pleas are “open,” where the defendant pleads guilty to agreed-upon charges without any promises from the State about the ultimate sentence. Other pleas include an arrangement as to […]

More than thirty years before the United States Supreme Court in Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963), determined that the Sixth Amendment guarantee of appointed counsel for indigent defendants […]

In my last post, I noted that I am doing more work in the area of extradition. The news generated a lot of great questions, many of which I hope […]

The statutory right to use deadly force in self-defense is not available to one who was committing a felony. G.S. 14-51.4(1). In State v. McLymore, 380 N.C. 185 (2022), the […]

Extradition is the procedure by which a person who has committed a crime in one state, escaped from custody in one state, or violated probation, parole or post-release supervision imposed […]

I am excited to announce that I have published a bulletin on Iryna’s Law and Pretrial Release. The bill under which it was enacted, Session Law 2025-93 (HB 307), made […]

The defendant in State v. Phillips, No. COA25-275 (N.C. Ct. App. Jan. 7, 2026), argued the trial court erred by denying his pretrial motion to dismiss based on a defective […]

Individual jurors or juries through their chosen foreperson sometimes send notes to the trial court in criminal trials. The content of this kind of communication varies. Sometimes a note reveals […]

In Part I and Part II of this three-part series revisiting the landmark calendaring case, Simeon v. Hardin, 339 N.C. 358 (1994), I explored the key issues of pretrial delay […]

The 2025 legislative session was relatively quiet for expunction law but still potentially important for some people. I have incorporated the changes in the law into the latest version of […]