April 4, 2017
Almost everyone knows about the trial of O.J. Simpson for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Many people also know about a key piece of evidence introduced […]
March 8, 2017
I wrote in September 2015 that the court of appeals’ view of the admissibility of retrograde extrapolation under Daubert did not look much different from its take on the admissibility […]
March 7, 2017
Suppose that a law enforcement officer testifies for the State in a criminal case and is unable to remember some aspects of his investigation. The prosecutor shows the officer his […]
February 21, 2017
In a recent decision, the Court of Appeals granted a new trial on the ground that improper and prejudicial character evidence regarding a prior incarceration of the defendant was admitted […]
December 5, 2016
This post addresses three recurrent issues concerning eyewitness identification: When, if at all, is expert testimony about eyewitness identification admissible? When, if at all, is an indigent defendant entitled to […]
November 28, 2016
Is having sex with your spouse “communication”? The court of appeals addressed this issue in State v. Godbey, a child sexual abuse case. The victim alleged that the defendant engaged […]
October 5, 2016
Surveillance camera footage of crime scenes often helps law enforcement officers identify an unknown perpetrator. This kind of footage can be equally powerful at trial, convincing jurors that the person […]
September 22, 2016
Do the following facts provide probable cause to arrest for impaired driving? An officer pulls behind a vehicle at a stoplight around 3 a.m. and sees that its registration is […]
August 31, 2016
True or False: An officer does not have to be qualified as an expert to testify about horizontal gaze nystagmus in a hearing on a motion to suppress in an […]
August 29, 2016
About a year ago, I wrote about State v. Hembree, 368 N.C. 2 (2015), a case in which the state supreme court reversed a murder conviction based on the State’s […]