A UNC School of Government Blog
In 2002, David Hurt pled guilty to second-degree murder. Over the next several years his case bounced back and forth between the trial and appellate courts based on problems with his aggravated-range sentence. In the meantime, the United States Supreme Court decided Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296 (2004). Hurt’s case was eventually remanded for … Read more
Jamie Markham’s famous sex offender flow chart is the best one page reference that money can buy. And it’s free! The latest revision is available here. Jamie has also put together a longer and more comprehensive treatment of the sex offender laws. It covers both sex offender registration and satellite-based monitoring, and as always with … Read more
Under G.S. 15A-1346(a), a “period of probation commences on the day it is imposed and runs concurrently with any other period of probation, parole, or imprisonment to which the defendant is subject during that period.” Under that rule, periods of probation may not be stacked. In State v. Canady, 153 N.C. App. 455 (2002), for … Read more
by School of Government faculty member Jamie Markham In an earlier post I wrote about the satellite-based monitoring (SBM) effective-date question resolved by the court of appeals in State v. Cowan. To paraphrase Inigo Montoya, let me sum up: August 16, 2006 is the effective date that matters for SBM. Today, I want to come … Read more
Jeff previously posted news items about North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act (RJA), including one here updating readers on the bill’s path to law, and one here about actual RJA filings. I was recently told by the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts that there now are at least 204 filed RJA motions. Although most of … Read more
I mentioned in my last post that State v. Bowditch was not the only satellite-based monitoring (SBM) case recently decided by the Supreme Court of North Carolina. The court also affirmed four other decisions from the court of appeals and decided it had improvidently allowed discretionary review in another. Although those decisions turned in part … Read more
I was out of the office when the Supreme Court of North Carolina released its latest batch of opinions, so I’m just now getting around to writing about big news related to satellite-based monitoring (SBM) of sex offenders. In State v. Bowditch, the state high court concluded that SBM is not a criminal punishment, and … Read more
I recently presented at the North Carolina Probation and Parole Association’s annual conference. I received a lot of really good questions, but the subject that raised the most questions (by far) was tolling probation under G.S. 15A-1344(g). I wrote about it in this post if you care to review the basics. The general concept is … Read more
The court of appeals decided two satellite-based monitoring cases last week, State v. May and State v. Cowan. The May case—which primarily orders the correction of a clerical error—reminds us that as used in the sex offender context, “offense against a minor” does not mean any sex crime that happens to be against a minor. … Read more
Every now and then I get a call—usually from a concerned citizen or a prosecutor—asking whether it’s okay for a sex offender to be living in the same residence as a minor. This post summarizes the restrictions on living with minors applicable to registered offenders who are still under supervision by the Department of Correction. … Read more