Recent blog posts

Last Friday, violence erupted outside the Wake County Courthouse when Gwendolyn White reportedly shot at two lawyers, Mary Harris and Jeffrey Whitley. The attack happened after a tense hearing at […]

If asked if North Carolina has a speedy trial law, until relatively recently, I would have said no. A defendant does have constitutional rights to a speedy trial under the […]

This post summarizes the published criminal opinions from the Supreme Court of North Carolina released on May 22, 2026. There was no Harbison error where (1) the defendant agreed to […]

This post summarizes the published criminal opinions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on May 20, 2026. Trial counsel was not ineffective on multiple grounds asserted by defense; […]

One of the unique aspects of juvenile delinquency procedure is the intake and evaluation process. This mandatory process precedes commencement of a delinquency court action and determines if an initial […]

The U.S. Department of Justice indicted Raúl Castro, the 94-year-old former president of Cuba, for his role in ordering the 1996 downing of two planes. The planes were flown by […]

Editor’s note: This post first appeared on the School of Government’s blog directed at civil law and procedure. It is cross-posted here because the content is also pertient for prosecutors, […]

This post summarizes criminal law and related cases released by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals during April of 2026. Cases of potential interest to state practitioners are summarized monthly. […]

A colleague recently came into my office carrying Volume 3 of the General Statutes of North Carolina Annotated by Lexis Nexis (what we attorneys call “the green book”) with a […]

We last addressed the 2023 trial of Alex Murdaugh, the South Carolina lawyer convicted of murdering his wife and son, in February of 2024 (although Shea subsequently reviewed a nonfiction […]