Recent blog posts

WUNC reports that Tailei Qi was found not guilty by reason of insanity this week for the 2023 on-campus shooting death of Zijie Yan, an associate professor at UNC Chapel […]

In July, the legislature enacted House Bill 1173, S.L. 2026-37, or “Jaleeyah’s Law.” As Shea previously noted in a news roundup, the impetus for the legislation was the fatal shooting […]

With the school year now in full swing, questions are surfacing regarding law enforcement communication with schools about juvenile involvement in the justice system. The reality that School Resource Officers […]

This post summarizes the published criminal opinions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on September 16, 2026. Trial court did not err by finding a violation of conditions […]

If you’re reading this, we made it at least one more week before the robots take over. Here’s a look at the week’s criminal law news. Halligan, James, and Comey. […]

By now the last fiscal year is pretty far back in everyone’s rear view mirror. Nevertheless, I am excited to share the North Carolina Judicial College’s annual report for 2025-26. […]

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

Automatic license plate readers, or ALPRs, have been in the news lately. Most ALPRs are made by a company called Flock Safety and therefore commonly are called Flock cameras. This […]

The jury in the Lindsay Clancy case was in its seventh day of deliberations when we posted last week’s News Roundup. Later that day, the trial judge declared a mistrial; […]

Under G.S. 15A-1340.14(b)(6), an additional sentencing point applies “[i]f all the elements of the present offense are included in any prior offense for which the offender was convicted, whether or […]