Sentencing Archives – Page 60 of 60 – North Carolina Criminal Law

New Report on Incarceration and Community Corrections

March 3, 2009 by Jeff Welty

The Pew Center on the States just released a new report entitled One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections. It’s available here, and a couple of news stories about it are here and here. The title reflects the proportion of American adults that is under some form of “correctional control,” i.e., in prison, … Read more

Prayer for Judgment Continued

May 25, 2011February 23, 2009 by Jamie Markham

It has become clear to me in my work with judges and lawyers around the state that use of prayer for judgment continued—a practice virtually unique to North Carolina, at least by that name—varies. The long-running James Johnson case in Wilson concluded last week with a PJC (story here), prompting me to make the first … Read more

Proposed Changes to Sentencing Laws

May 25, 2011February 17, 2009 by Jamie Markham

With the growing prison population and the shrinking budget, there’s some talk of changes to North Carolina’s sentencing laws. An article in the paper last week made general reference to sentencing alternatives proposed by the Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission. I thought people might be interested in knowing a little more about the specifics of … Read more

Going off the Grid

May 25, 2011February 9, 2009 by Jamie Markham

In addition to sentencing in the mitigated range of the Structured Sentencing grid, there are two ways defendants can receive more lenient punishment in North Carolina: extraordinary mitigation and substantial assistance. Each law applies only in certain circumstances, and sometimes there’s confusion between the two. Extraordinary mitigation—or, more precisely, Dispositional Deviation for Extraordinary Mitigation under … Read more

Consecutive Sentences, Not Put on Ice

May 25, 2011February 4, 2009 by Jamie Markham

A number of people have asked me whether the United States Supreme Court’s recent opinion in Oregon v. Ice (07-901) has any impact on North Carolina sentencing law. The short answer is, No. In Ice, the latest chapter in the Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296 (2004), saga, a 5–4 majority of the Justices held … Read more

Sex Offenders, Online Identifiers, and the First Amendment

February 9, 2009February 3, 2009 by Jeff Welty

A federal judge in Utah recently invalidated the part of Utah’s sex offender registry that requires each registrant to provide his “[i]nternet identifiers and . . . addresses . . . [and] the name . . . of all websites on which the sex offender is registered.” Doe v. Shurtleff, 2008 WL 4427594 (D. Ut. Sept. 15, 2008) (quoting Utah Code Ann. § 77-27-21.5(12)(i) & (j)). This raises some questions about the constitutionality of North Carolina’s new requirement that sex offenders provide “[a]ny online identifier that the person uses or intends to use.” G.S. 14-208.7(b)(7) (eff. May 1, 2009). . .

For Whom the (ahem) Period of Probation Tolls

May 25, 2011January 30, 2009 by Jamie Markham

If you’ve been reading the paper, you know the Division of Community Corrections (Probation) has been under a microscope lately. Since the killings of UNC undergraduate Eve Carson and Duke graduate student Abhijit Mahato in 2008, both allegedly committed by probationers, Probation has been taking a hard look at its policies and procedures. One change … Read more

State v. Wooten and Satellite Monitoring of Sex Offenders

May 25, 2011January 28, 2009 by Jamie Markham

Like about half the states, North Carolina monitors certain sex offenders by satellite. The General Assembly first enacted our satellite-based monitoring (SBM) program in 2006, requiring lifetime monitoring of recidivists, aggravated offenders, and sexually violent predators, and monitoring for a period of years determined by the court for offenders whose crime involved the physical, mental, … Read more