A UNC School of Government Blog
I thought that I might blog today about the Sotomayor confirmation hearings, but they’ve been thoroughly dull. The only piece I’ve seen that makes them seem even a little bit interesting is this one, which I understand to be written by a liberal commentator unimpressed with the judge. Fortunately, my colleague John Rubin rescued me … Read more
From time to time, a judge, prosecutor, or defense attorney will call the School of Government asking about the law of sexual assualts in, say, 1968. Typically, the caller will be handling a case involving recent allegations of sexual abuse by a person who is now an adult but who was a child at the … Read more
[Update: the state supreme court reviewed this case, reversing in part, as described here.] The court of appeals published its opinion in State v. Davis this week, a case in which it affirmed the defendant’s convictions for felony serious injury by vehicle, assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, two counts of felony death … Read more
Editor’s note: Several readers have reported technical difficulties with the blog. I’m trying to solve the problem, but in the meantime, (1) it seems to be limited to users of Microsoft Internet Explorer, so using a different browser may help, and (2) the last two days’ posts should be viewable here and here. My apologies. … Read more
North Carolina has been all over the web recently. The News and Observer’s habitual felon article, which I discussed in a previous post, has made a splash on several of the most-read criminal law blogs — here and here (both links involve some scrolling) — with some of the reaction being positive, and some less … Read more
The second most interesting news story of the past couple of days is a New York Times piece about the looming demise of some of the nation’s biggest law firms. Wait, you mean the business model of paying brand-new law school graduates $160,000 per year to review documents isn’t working? But the most interesting news … Read more
The Court of Appeals released several opinions yesterday. The most significant may be State v. Wallace, an assault case involving remarkable and disturbing facts and difficult legal questions. The victim, a 79-year-old man, and one of the defendants, a 66-year-old woman, became neighbors when the victim sold the defendant some of his land. A boundary … Read more
Recently, I blogged about limitations on a judge’s authority to enter a disposition of prayer for judgment continued in speeding cases depending upon the speeding charge. (You can read that post here.) The recent discussion regarding judgments in speeding cases begs the question of why specific speeds are part of the adjudication in the first … Read more
Some time ago I prepared a flow chart that included all the information about sex offender registration and monitoring I could reasonably (or maybe even slightly unreasonably) cram onto one page. My goal was to create an at-a-glance reference tool that included all the effective dates—crucial for applying the law properly—that appear in the patchwork … Read more
In 2007, legislative action designed to stiffen penalties for drivers charged with speeding followed close on the heels of the “Speed Unlimited” series published in the News and Observer in May 2007. Among the News and Observer’s findings was that, in 2006, only 19 percent of drivers ticketed for speeding at 100 mph or more … Read more