Recent blog posts

As of this morning, the jury in the Lindsay Clancy trial remains deadlocked for the seventh day. Clancy, accused of killing her three children, faces charges including murder, second-degree murder, […]

The North Carolina Supreme Court held in State v. Farook, No. 457PA20-2, ___ N.C. ___ (August 14, 2026) (summarized here), that the proper analysis for most claims of ineffective assistance […]

This blog is a collaboration between School of Government faculty members focusing on municipal authority (Rebecca Fisher-Gabbard) and motor vehicle law (Belal Elrahal).  Recently (purely for research purposes), Belal visited […]

In Part I of this two-part series, I discussed the significance of the Boxes 1-6 in the “findings” section of the AOC-CR-200 form (Conditions Of Release And Release Order). This […]

When a person is arrested for a criminal offense, the judicial official authorizing pretrial release must issue an appropriate order containing a statement of the conditions imposed. G.S. 15A-534(d). This […]

Overcrowding at North Carolina jails continues to be a problem, with Wake County jails holding more than 1,800 people in August despite a capacity of 1,574. As noted in prior […]

Part I of this two-part blog addressed what happens at arraignment, compared the way arraignment works in North Carolina to the way it works in other states, and set forth  […]

This post summarizes published criminal opinions from the Supreme Court of North Carolina released on August 14, 2026. The court released twelve such opinions on that day, some quite lengthy. […]

Probable cause (PC) hearings play a unique role in delinquency cases. They are required only in the subset of cases that are potentially eligible for transfer to superior court, and […]

This post summarizes the published criminal opinions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on August 19, 2026. Trial court erred by dismissing the charges against the defendant pursuant […]