Sixty years ago today, Rosa Parks was arrested for failing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama city bus to a white passenger. Thinking about her courage, the arrest, and the changes that it helped bring about, I realized that I didn’t know what became of the charges against her. I was surprised by the answer, and thought I’d share it with others.
Jeff Welty
Are Daily Fantasy Sports Gambling?
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving means football, and football nowadays means an endless parade of advertisements for DraftKings, FanDuel, and other daily fantasy sports businesses. This post asks the obvious question: are these contests illegal gambling?
News Roundup
This week, the mighty fell. Locally, Dana Cope, the former director of the State Employees Association of North Carolina, pled guilty to spending $570,000 of the Association’s money on personal expenses, like landscaping, flying lessons, a trip to China, a home theater system, clothing, and much more. During his court appearance, Cope acknowledged “I am a thief.” He received a sentence of 58 to 82 months in prison. WRAL has the story here. Nationally, Subway spokesman Jared Fogle was sentenced to 15.5 years in federal prison after admitting he possessed child pornography and had sex with minors. The sentence exceeded prosecutors’ recommendation of 12.5 years. Fogle will also pay $1.4 million in restitution. Reuters has the details here.
Recent Changes to the Pretrial Release Statutes
In the 2015 legislative session, the General Assembly made two significant changes to the pretrial release statutes: (1) it effectively repealed a “bond doubling” provision for defendants rearrested while on pretrial release, and (2) it expanded the scope of the 48-hour rule for domestic violence cases to include dating couples.
Is North Carolina the Only State in Which the Prosecutor Controls the Calendar?
I was on a panel about criminal case calendaring yesterday at the Courts Commission. While talking to people in preparation for the event, I kept hearing one thing: that North Carolina is the only state in which the prosecutor controls the calendar. After conducting some research, I don’t think that’s quite right.
News Roundup
A divided North Carolina Supreme Court decided State v. Packingham last Friday, upholding the statutory ban on registered sex offenders using social networking websites that allow minors to join. G.S. 14-202.5. The defendant argued that the statute violated his First Amendment rights, but the court ruled that the statute targets conduct, not speech, and that any incidental burden on speech is justifiable. A law professor’s skeptical analysis of the decision is here. Another professor’s suggestion that the case may merit review by the United States Supreme Court is here.
News Roundup
Superior Court Judge Arnold Jones, the Chair of the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, was arrested this week and charged in federal court with bribery and related offenses. WRAL reports here that the judge allegedly attempted “to bribe an FBI officer [by paying him $100] to collect text messages between two phone numbers in what the judge said was a family matter.”
Changes to Jury Waiver Procedures
This session, the General Assembly amended G.S. 15A-1201, which sets out the procedures for waiving a jury trial in superior court. S.L. 2015-289. This post summarizes the changes.
News Roundup
My family and I went to the State Fair last weekend, the same day as Bobby Joe Snyder, the third registered sex offender to be arrested at the Fair this year. WRAL has the story here. We had a good time, watching some clogging, cheering for the Axe Women Loggers of Maine, and eating fried Oreos.
Eyewitness Identification Reform Act Extended to Show-Ups
Effective December 1, S.L. 2015-212 extends the Eyewitness Identification Reform Act, G.S. 15A-284.52, to cover show-ups. But the bill leaves the status of photographic show-ups in doubt and contains a strange provision regarding law enforcement officers as eyewitnesses. This post unpacks the new law.