Recent blog posts

“It is part of the audacity of the American project to believe that collective security can coexist with individual freedom.” So begins the recent Fourth Circuit decision addressing the scope […]

Special probation, commonly known as a split sentence, allows for a mix of imprisonment and probation. Under G.S. 15A-1351(a), the general rule in Structured Sentencing cases is that the total […]

Each year the School of Government publishes new and revised pattern jury instructions for civil, criminal, and motor vehicle negligence cases. Those instructions are created and compiled by the North […]

The opinions of a lay witness are generally limited to those that are (1) rationally based on the witness’s perception and (2) helpful to the jury. N.C. R. Evid. 701. […]

This post summarizes the published criminal opinions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on November 4, 2026. Evidence of intoxication or a verbal argument, standing alone, did not […]

The big news of the week was the election, with most media coverage focused on the change to the balance of power in Congress. This is not a political blog, […]

There are over 200 available beds at the DART Center. No wait. Today’s post talks about that and other things we learned on a recent visit to Goldsboro. Last week, […]

In September, the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission published the Driving While Impaired Convictions Statistical Report for Fiscal Year 2025 (hereinafter “the report”). The report provided detailed information […]

In a previous post, I wrote about the different types of sureties on a bail bond. As a quick recap, a surety is one who, along with the defendant, is […]

James Comey is back in the news. The United States Department of Justice has filed a criminal information against the former Director of the FBI accusing him of revealing sensitive […]