A few weeks ago I wrote about provisions of the 2023 Appropriations Act that affect the judiciary. Among those changes was the creation of ten new special superior court judgeships to be filled by legislative appointment. The General Assembly made seven of those appointments last week. See S.L. 2023-148 (S 761). The list of special superior court judges who are appointed to eight-year terms effective January 1, 2024, follows.
Shea Denning
State v. McKoy and Opening the Door
Suppose the defendant is on trial for murder. He argues he shot the victim in self-defense.
The State elicits testimony from the victim’s father that the victim, who lived at home with his parents, was “always a happy guy.” The father states that he does not allow guns in his home and that, to his knowledge, the victim did not have a gun with him on the day he was shot or have a gun at any other time.
Counsel for the defendant then asks the father: After your son died, did you see pictures on his cell phone of him with his friends holding guns?
The State objects. The defendant argues that, while the evidence would otherwise be inadmissible, the State opened the door to its admission.
How should the trial court rule?
New Pattern Jury Instructions Available Along with Updated Online Library
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 Carolina Conference of Superior Court Judges Committee on Pattern Jury Instructions. The 2023 updates are available for free download here. Among this year’s changes are new civil instructions related to breach of fiduciary duty and new and revised criminal instructions for the arson offenses created by S.L. 2022-8 and for the changes to organized retail theft crimes enacted by S.L. 2022-30.
Keep reading to learn about improvements to the School’s online library of pattern jury instructions and about the School’s plan to publish comprehensive, searchable electronic versions of pattern jury instructions in future years.
News Roundup
Law enforcement officers in Philadelphia arrested more than 50 people Tuesday night after a flash mob ransacked dozens of stores, including Foot Locker, Lululemon, Apple, and at least 18 state-run liquor stores. The looting began after a peaceful protest over a judge’s dismissal of charges against a Philadelphia police officer who shot and killed driver Eddie Irizarry through a rolled-up window after pulling him over for erratic driving. The Police Commissioner said the looters were not associated with the protests, but instead were “criminal opportunists” who launched a coordinated attack. The Associated Press has the story here.
In related news, Target announced earlier that same day that it was closing nine stores in four states because organized retail crime had made operating the stores unsafe and unsustainable. The stores include the East Harlem location in New York City, two locations in Seattle, three in Portland, and three in San Franscisco and Oakland. CNN has the story here.
Keep reading for more criminal law news.
2023 Appropriations Act Enacts Significant Court-Related Changes
Several provisions of the 2023 Appropriations Act (H 259) ratified by the General Assembly last week (which is expected to become law on October 3 without the Governor’s signature) affect the judiciary. The biggest news item for judges may be the substantial salary increases included in the two-year budget. At the end of the biennium, salaries for district court judges will have increased by 24 percent (to $162,620) and salaries for superior court judge by 13 percent to ($169,125). The salary for the Chief Justice will increase by 20 percent over this period (from $168,980 to $203,073), and salaries for associate justices and court of appeals judges will have the same percentage increase. Many argue that those kinds of adjustments are long overdue. A 2020 ranking of judicial salaries by the National Center for State Courts placed North Carolina judicial salaries in the bottom half of all states and the District of Columbia. Supreme court associate justice salaries were the lowest of those measured, coming in at number 44. But this post is not about salaries; instead it will focus on other court system changes enacted by H 259.
I’ll start with some different numbers.
State v. Calderon Refines Analysis of When Acts Support Multiple Counts of Indecent Liberties
A recent court of appeals case, State v. Calderon, ___ N.C. App. ___ (2023), sets forth a new test for determining whether multiple acts of touching a child during a single encounter can support multiple counts of indecent liberties.
Legislature Tweaks Jurisdictional Rules for District and Superior Courts
A few weeks ago, I wrote about one part of S.L. 2023-97 (S 91), which prohibited street takeovers. This post covers other provisions of that session law, which change the jurisdictional rules for district and superior court, albeit in limited ways.
News Roundup
Former President Donald Trump was indicted on Monday for the fourth time. A Fulton County grand jury returned a 41-count indictment charging Trump and 18 others with a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that indictment is the culmination of a two-year investigation launched by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis following Trump’s leaked January 2, 2021, phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, during which Trump asked Raffensperger to “find” him 11,780 votes.
Keep reading for more criminal law news.
Recent Legislation Outlaws Street Takeovers
Last month the General Assembly enacted new G.S. 20-141.10 criminalizing so-called street takeovers. S.L. 2023-97. A street takeover occurs when a person blocks or impedes traffic on a highway, street, or public vehicular area with a motor vehicle in order to perform a motor vehicle stunt, contest, or exhibition. The new statute, effective for offenses committed on or after December 1, 2023, makes it unlawful for a person to operate a motor vehicle in a street takeover or to participate in or coordinate such an event. S.L. 2023-97 further authorizes the seizure of a motor vehicle operated in violation of G.S. 20-141.10.
News Roundup
On Tuesday, former President Donald Trump was indicted for a third time. Trump previously was indicted in New York state court for allegations that he paid hush-money to an adult firm star days before the 2016 presidential election. The second indictment, filed in federal court in Florida, relates to the discovery of classified documents in Trump’s home after he left the White House. Some experts deem the latest indictment, filed in federal court in the District of Columbia, as the most consequential. Trump is accused of attempting to remain in power, despite having lost the 2020 election, by subverting election results. The indictment alleges that Trump engaged in unlawful conspiracies that “built on the widespread mistrust [Trump] was creating through pervasive and destabilizing lies about election fraud” and that “targeted a bedrock function of the United States federal government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election.” Trump appeared in court on Thursday and entered a plea of not guilty.
Keeping reading for more criminal law news.