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September 30, 2013
A new edition of the State of North Carolina Extradition Manual is now available. Although international extradition gets all the media attention — and is the subject of this blog post […]
READ POST "New Extradition Manual Now Available (September 30, 2013)"September 18, 2013
Tucked into the 2013 North Carolina budget bill is a provision imposing new court costs for expert witnesses who testify about chemical or forensic analyses at trial. Specifically, the new […]
READ POST "Imposing Fees for Forensic Expert Testimony — Is It Constitutional? (September 18, 2013)"September 12, 2013
In State v. Cooper, issued last week, the Court of Appeals reversed the defendant’s conviction for first-degree murder of his wife and ordered a new trial. The case has drawn […]
READ POST "What Are Permissible Discovery Sanctions Against the Defendant? (September 12, 2013)"September 9, 2013
When the police seize a gun in the course of an investigation, what becomes of it after any resulting court case concludes? A recent legislative enactment has changed the most […]
READ POST "New Law Regarding Disposal of Seized Guns (September 9, 2013)"August 19, 2013
In a bulletin here I wrote about NC’s procedure for post-conviction motions for appropriate relief (MARs). Among other things, that bulletin explains the types of claims that can be raised […]
READ POST "NC Court Takes a Restrictive View of “Significant Change in the Law” MARs (August 19, 2013)"August 14, 2013
Earlier this week, United States Attorney General Eric Holder, speaking to American Bar Association, announced a policy change in how drug cases will be charged in federal court. This post […]
READ POST "Changes in Federal Drug Prosecutions — Spillover in State Court? (August 14, 2013)"August 7, 2013
Maybe so, according to a recent Reuters report. Apparently, the Special Operations Division of the DEA receives information from the NSA and passes it to DEA field agents. The agents […]
READ POST "Is the DEA Using NSA Warrantless Surveillance Data in Domestic Drug Investigations? (August 7, 2013)"August 1, 2013
I wrote here about how law enforcement officers may obtain historical information about the location of a suspect’s cellular phone. There have been several developments in the law since then, […]
READ POST "Warrantless Cell Phone Tracking: The Fifth Circuit Weighs In (August 1, 2013)"July 30, 2013
S 182 is on the Governor’s desk. It is entitled in part “An Act to Eliminate Appeals for Infractions.” The bill also does some other things, but the focus of […]
READ POST "No More Appeals for Infractions? (July 30, 2013)"July 23, 2013
The legislature has agreed on a budget, and it contains some provisions that will impact misdemeanor sentencing and the appointment of counsel — potentially in tens of thousands of cases […]
READ POST "Misdemeanor Reclassification, the Right to Counsel, and the Budget (July 23, 2013)"