To 404(b) or Not to 404(b)
My ten-year-old daughter asked me a few weeks ago what O.J. Simpson had done. Like the rest of America, she heard news of his parole hearing. What she couldn’t figure […]
August 2, 2017
Counties May Impose Civil Penalties for Passing a Stopped School Bus
Four years ago, the General Assembly increased the criminal fine for passing a stopped school bus and enacted new license revocation and registration hold provisions. During the previous year—2012—there had […]
July 19, 2017
State v. Younts: Rule 702 Does Not Require Proof that HGN Testing is Reliable
Folks, we have an answer. The court of appeals held yesterday in State v. Younts, ___ N.C. App. ___ (2017), that a law enforcement officer trained to administer a Horizontal […]
July 18, 2017
Summer Confrontation Clause Cases
This past June saw a flurry of Confrontation Clause cases from the appellate division: State v. Miller, ___ N.C. App. ___ (June 20, 2017), temp. stay allowed, ___ N.C. ___ […]
June 19, 2017
Bill Cosby and the Lack of Rule 404(b) Evidence
Over the weekend, the judge presiding over Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial declared a mistrial after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict. I hadn’t followed the case […]
June 13, 2017
Must a Trial Judge Act as a Gatekeeper Even if Not Asked to Do So?
Here’s a question that arose during a recent class: Suppose that a party in a criminal case seeks to introduce forensic evidence from a discipline of questionable validity, such as […]
May 23, 2017
The Independent Source Exception to the Exclusionary Rule under the United States Constitution
I discussed the inevitable discovery exception in my last post. This post will discuss the independent source exception, particularly the United States Supreme Court cases of Segura v. United States, […]
May 22, 2017
Can the Fact that Daryl Had a Glock Yesterday Be Used to Prove that He Had an AK-47 Today?
When a defendant is charged with possession of a firearm by a felon, may the prosecution introduce, under Rule 404(b), evidence that the defendant previously possessed a different firearm? Courts […]
May 8, 2017
The Inevitable Discovery Exception to the Exclusionary Rule under the United States Constitution
Two important exceptions to exclusionary rules under the federal constitution were adopted by the United States Supreme Court within a month of each other in 1984: (1) the inevitable discovery […]
April 18, 2017
Walker, Jacobs, and the Importance of Preserving the Record
Two weeks ago, the SOG hosted over 50 public defenders, contract attorneys, and private assigned counsel at its annual Felony Defender training. The training provides guidance to lawyers transitioning to […]
Subscribe
Categories
Blog Authors
- Maggie Bailey
- Brittany Bromell
- Emily Coward
- Alexander Cowell
- Melanie Crenshaw
- Michael Crowell
- Shea Denning
- Sara DePasquale
- Phil Dixon
- James Drennan
- Belal Elrahal
- Whitney Fairbanks
- Bob Farb
- Rebecca Fisher-Gabbard
- Jacquelyn Greene
- Alyson Grine
- Timothy Heinle
- Jonathan Holbrook
- Joseph L. Hyde
- Kirsten Leloudis
- Caitlin Little
- Ian Mance
- Jamie Markham
- Chris McLaughlin
- Kristi Nickodem
- Alex Phipps
- M. Jeanette Pitts
- LaToya Powell
- Ethan Rex
- John Rubin
- Jessica Smith
- Meredith Smith
- Daniel Spiegel
- Tom Thornburg
- Hannah Turner
- Christopher Tyner
- Jeff Welty