May 23, 2011
It is conference season again at the School of Government, which means that we are doing a lot of presentations for a lot of different groups in the court system. […]
May 19, 2011
The usual way for the State to establish that a person drove while impaired under the per se prong of G.S. 20-138.1 is to introduce the results of a chemical […]
May 5, 2011
The North Carolina Supreme Court held in State v. Ward, 364 N.C. 133 (2010) (discussed here), that the trial court abused its discretion by permitting an expert chemist to identify […]
March 24, 2011
In my first two posts, I explored the Bryant opinions. Today I’ll discuss what the case means for confrontation clause analysis going forward. 1. Although Crawford is intact, the Court […]
March 22, 2011
On February 28, 2011, the United States Supreme Court decided Michigan v. Bryant, its latest Crawford case. In an opinion written by Justice Sotomayor, the Court held that a homicide […]
March 17, 2011
Under G.S. 15A-1345(e), a probationer is entitled at a probation violation hearing to “confront and cross-examine adverse witnesses unless the court finds good cause for not allowing confrontation.” What does […]
March 15, 2011
Suppose that the state wants to introduce the defendant’s phone records, in order to show that he called the victim in violation of a DVPO. The state subpoenas the records, […]
March 14, 2011
I wrote here about the court of appeals’ decision in State v. Davis, __ N.C. App. __, 702 S.E.2d 507 (2010), granting the defendant a new trial on second degree […]
March 3, 2011
Jeff wrote last June about the North Carolina Supreme Court’s opinion in State v. Ward, which held that the trial court abused its discretion by permitting an expert chemist to […]
February 17, 2011
Yesterday, I taught a class on the use of Rule 404(b) evidence in sexual assault cases. During the class, we discussed the general rule against admitting the bare fact of […]