A UNC School of Government Blog
Jeff Welty 
There’s been lots of interesting news lately, so I’ll dive right in. 1. The state supreme court issued several opinions yesterday. By far the most significant criminal case is State v. Ward. I may do a whole post about Ward, but the basic holding is that visual identification of controlled substances is unreliable and that … Read more
The court of appeals recently decided State v. Dark. It’s a concise opinion that summarizes and applies the black-letter law on an issue that comes up regularly: when must the state disclose the identity of a confidential informant to the defendant? G.S. 15A-904(a1) says that “[t]he State is not required to disclose the identity of … Read more
There’s a recurrent discovery issue in child pornography cases. Generally, it goes like this: the defendant is arrested and charged with a child pornography offense. The prosecution contends that the defendant’s computer contains images of child pornography. The defendant retains a computer expert to examine his computer, hoping to show that the images were downloaded … Read more
The world’s biggest sporting event begins today in South Africa. I’ve been playing soccer more or less continuously — albeit not very well — for more than 30 years. Predictably, I’m pretty excited about the World Cup, especially the critical matchup tomorrow between the United States and England. But for today, I remain focused on … Read more
Last week, I posted about the second look doctrine. (You can read that post here.) Recall that the basic idea is that if the police have custody of an object — like a wallet, or a purse, or a cell phone — that they could have searched incident to a defendant’s arrest and booking, they … Read more
I may be the only person in America who has never seen an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Nonetheless, I am interested in the so-called CSI effect. As The Economist explains in this succinct article, jurors who have been exposed to television crime dramas may have unrealistic expectations about the ability of forensic science … Read more
Recent stories of interest include the following: 1. The News and Observer reports that the state House just passed its version of the budget. The last version that I saw — admittedly, not the final — included significant cuts to the court system, and deep cuts to the UNC system. The House budget must now … Read more
Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court decided Berghuis v. Thompkins, an important Miranda case. (There are other issues in the case, too, but this post will focus on the Miranda claim.) The basic facts, taken from the Court’s syllabus, are as follows: After advising respondent Thompkins of his rights, in full compliance with Miranda v. … Read more
It’s Friday before a holiday weekend. What better time for a news roundup? 1. Two brothers prevented a 19-year-old jogger from being abducted in Chapel Hill recently. Their inspiring story is here. 2. A much more somber story about crime in Chapel Hill is here: Demario Atwater pleaded guilty to murdering student body president Eve … Read more
Consider the following scenario. The police arrest Sam Suspect and charge him with murdering his wife, Vicky Victim. The arrest is based on a statement from Frank Friend, one of Sam’s buddies. According to Frank, Sam told him that he was having an affair and killed Vicky to get her “out of the way.” Sam … Read more