A Post Filled with Contempt

Over the past few months I’ve been getting some really interesting questions about contempt. Disclaimer: The real experts on our faculty when it comes to contempt are John Saxon, Michael Crowell, and Cheryl Howell—I’m just dabbling here. But there’s a connection to my field (sentencing), in that many of the questions I’m getting relate to … Read more

Self-Defense

I posted yesterday about one of the recent Court of Appeals decisions.  At the risk of going back to the well, I want to highlight another of those cases today.  (I’ve got something else in mind for tomorrow.) In State v. Revels, available here, the defendant was convicted of second-degree murder.  She appealed, claiming that … Read more

Supreme Court News

The Supreme Court (Washington, not Raleigh) has had a bit of a slow February so far, whether because of Justice Ginsburg’s well-publicized health problems or for some other reason.  Still, it’s done a couple things of interest to criminal lawyers. First, it adopted a broad interpretation of 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(9), which prohibits people who have … Read more

Multiple Assault Convictions Based on the Same Conduct

North Carolina has a number of different assault crimes, like simple assault, assault on a female, assault with a deadly weapon, and so on.  We also have a confusing body of case law regarding the propriety of multiple assault convictions based on a single course of conduct.  For example, can a defendant who assaults his … Read more

Gun-Toting Felons

North Carolina law prohibits convicted felons from possessing firearms.  See G.S. 14-415.1.  I’ve had several recurrent questions about this offense, so here’s an FAQ about FIP (felon in possession): 1. Doesn’t North Carolina allow felons to possess long guns? Not anymore.  North Carolina’s FIP law used to have lots of exceptions, including exceptions for long … Read more