A UNC School of Government Blog
Jeff Welty 
Criminal defendants, especially those sentenced to long prison terms, sometimes try to attack their convictions and sentences by claiming that their trial lawyers provided ineffective assistance of counsel. The state sometimes seeks trial lawyers’ help in answering these claims, and trial attorneys may want to help in order to avoid findings of ineffectiveness. At the … Read more
According to the News and Observer, the trial of Laurence Lovette begins today in Hillsborough. Lovette is charged with the first-degree murder of Eve Carson, who was, at the time of her death, the president of the student body at UNC – Chapel Hill. The case is non-capital, because Lovette was 17 at the time … Read more
Last night I attended the annual awards banquet of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section. Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby was presented with the Peter Gilchrist Award, honoring an exemplary prosecutor, and Raleigh defense attorney Joe Cheshire was presented with the Wade Smith Award, honoring an exemplary defense lawyer. It was an … Read more
Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State defensive coordinator accused of sexually abusing multiple young boys, gave a telephone interview to NBC’s Bob Costas. You can hear the interview here. (Those so inclined can hear Jon Stewart’s take on it here.) Sandusky said that he is innocent of the charges against him and has never had … Read more
The jury need not be unanimous regarding the felony underlying a defendant’s conviction of felony murder. State v. Taylor, 362 N.C. 514 (2008) (the defendant was charged with felony murder, and the jury was instructed disjunctively regarding two armed robberies as possible predicate felonies; the supreme court rejected the defendant’s argument that he was thereby … Read more
One can describe today in many ways. Perhaps most importantly, it is Veterans Day, a chance to appreciate those who have served in our nation’s armed forces. If you have served, thank you. Today is also a Friday, which means a news roundup day. And today is the first day of the college basketball season, … Read more
I’ve had several questions about BB guns, pellet guns, and airsoft guns, and whether certain criminal offenses can be predicated on the use or possession of such weapons. I’ll try to answer them in this far-too-long post. First, some terminology. Generally, a BB gun is an air-powered gun designed to shoot round, metal .177 caliber … Read more
Former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky has been charged with sexually assaulting eight young boys between 1994 and 2009. The principal New York Times story is here. ESPN’s coverage is here. The grand jury report on the matter is here. Sandusky allegedly met each of the boys through Second Mile, a charity that he … Read more
The legal tabloids spent much of the week focused on Texas judge William Adams, after a video was posted on YouTube of him brutally beating his teenage daughter. I watched a few seconds of it, which was a few seconds too many. The story is here if you’re interested; police have recently announced that no … Read more
On Halloween, I was dressed up as a sheep, trick or treating with my daughter, Little Bo Peep. Fortunately, serious legal business was being conducted elsewhere: the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Lafler v. Cooper, a fascinating ineffective assistance of counsel case. Here’s a summary of the case, courtesy of SCOTUSblog: Cooper shot a … Read more