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Geisslercrain Sends Green Packing

This is not a sports story – despite what the title may suggest. Besides, I am so over March Madness.  There was a little too much madness and not enough March for this double Tarheel. State v. Geisslercrain is among of yesterday’s batch of court of appeals opinions.  (The court issued twenty-four published opinions yesterday—leading … Read more

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Be careful what you wish for . . . Kostick further muddles Knoll analysis

The decades-old state supreme court decision in State v. Knoll, 322 N.C. 535 (1988), dismissing charges against three impaired driving defendants, is confusing.  For starters, the Knoll court’s decision hinged in part on its determination that the defendants were unlawfully detained.  Yet the court never even mentioned G.S. 15A-534.2—the statute authorizing the detention of impaired … Read more

The Community Caretaking Exception to the Warrant Requirement

The court of appeals recently expanded the community caretaking exception to the warrant requirement, entering a national controversy over the proper scope of the doctrine. This post explains the exception and the disagreement about its proper application. Background: United States Supreme Court. The doctrine was first recognized by the United States Supreme Court in Cady … Read more

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Citizen’s Arrest!

You don’t have to attend basic law enforcement training to identify a potential impaired driver.  Plenty of folks without police training could roll off a list of tell-tale signs, including excessive weaving, driving without headlights, and driving with the windows down in cold weather, particular when those signs are observed in the evening hours in … Read more

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When Officers Are Above the Law

The television news magazine  20/20 aired video footage last fall of North Carolina law enforcement officers speeding on Interstate 40 near Raleigh. Reporters followed the police vehicles to determine whether they were chasing a suspect, rushing to a crime scene, or otherwise involved in an emergency. None were. One officer drove directly to a doughnut … Read more

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Driving While Stoned

The New York Times reported earlier this week that driving under the influence of marijuana is significantly less risky than driving with a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.08.  That’s a good thing, since the Times also reported that impairment from marijuana is difficult to detect using the current battery of standardized field sobriety tests and difficult … Read more

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No Checkpoint Policy? No Checkpoint Evidence.

Regular and well-publicized checkpoints are an important component of the State’s effort to curtail impaired driving. Checkpoints provide specific as well as general deterrence. A handful of impaired drivers typically are arrested at any given checking station and subsequently prosecuted for impaired driving. Many more drivers than are stopped hear about the checkpoint. That publicity … Read more

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Presumptive Sentences in DWI Cases

Author’s Note:  The opinion discussed below was withdrawn on February 4, 2014 and replaced by an opinion discussed here.   How can a sentencing factor found by a judge that doubles a defendant’s maximum sentence not implicate Blakely?  I pondered this question a few years ago after the court of appeals in State v. Green, … Read more