Articles in the Procedure category

In a pair of recent cases, the North Carolina Court of Appeals addressed jurisdictional issues related to the prosecution of misdemeanors and the adjudication of infractions in superior court. In […]

If a person has a felony conviction, then gets it expunged, may the conviction nonetheless be used as a prior conviction to support a habitual felon charge? No reported appellate […]

Darcy lives in North Carolina. Upon learning about an upcoming music festival in California, Darcy creates realistic, high-quality digital replicas of the festival’s VIP wristband passes and PDF tickets. She […]

Probation records are privileged. That protection stems from an old statute, G.S. 15-207, which was enacted in 1937—the same year the original North Carolina Probation Commission was established. See N.C. […]

Some guilty pleas are “open,” where the defendant pleads guilty to agreed-upon charges without any promises from the State about the ultimate sentence. Other pleas include an arrangement as to […]

More than thirty years before the United States Supreme Court in Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963), determined that the Sixth Amendment guarantee of appointed counsel for indigent defendants […]

In my last post, I noted that I am doing more work in the area of extradition. The news generated a lot of great questions, many of which I hope […]

The statutory right to use deadly force in self-defense is not available to one who was committing a felony. G.S. 14-51.4(1). In State v. McLymore, 380 N.C. 185 (2022), the […]

Extradition is the procedure by which a person who has committed a crime in one state, escaped from custody in one state, or violated probation, parole or post-release supervision imposed […]

I am excited to announce that I have published a bulletin on Iryna’s Law and Pretrial Release. The bill under which it was enacted, Session Law 2025-93 (HB 307), made […]