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The town of Wendell, NC, recently purchased two drones and associated equipment for $20,000 to support the police department. Officials state the drones will help locate missing or endangered people, find criminal suspects, investigate traffic crashes, and support special operations. A sergeant noted the drones could be particularly helpful in locating children or adults with cognitive issues who go missing. The drones have heat-detecting cameras, live tracking, high-powered zoom, and distance-measuring tools. Proponents are optimistic that the technology will help officers by providing a perspective on chaotic scenes before officers go in blind. However, civil liberties groups have concerns that the technology may lead to intrusions on privacy. Law enforcement drone programs are proliferating throughout North Carolina in places such as Asheville, Burlington, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, and Winston-Salem.

Read on for more criminal law news.

The North Carolina Judicial College was founded in 2005 to expand the education and training the School of Government has provided to judicial branch officials since its founding in 1931. And expand we have! Last year we offered nearly 50 continuing education courses that provided more than 700 hours of continuing education credit. Those courses include orientation programs, classes focused on discrete topics of interest, experiential learning opportunities, skills-based training, and leadership seminars. They are offered to an array of judicial officials, including trial and appellate court judges, magistrates, and clerks of court.

If you thought it was only corner-cutting lawyers and tech-savvy college students that were relying on artificial intelligence to do their work for them, this week may force you to reconsider. Reuters reports here that “[f]ederal judges in Mississippi and New Jersey have withdrawn written rulings in a pair of unrelated lawsuits after lawyers in the cases said they contained factual inaccuracies and other serious errors.” Although the judges have not revealed how the “inaccuracies” and “errors” came to be, the types of mistakes involved will be familiar to anyone who uses generative AI or even reads about it: phantom quotations from real cases; citations to testimony from non-existent declarants; recitations of allegations that were never made; and fundamentally flawed legal “interpretation.” Keep reading for more news, curated and written up by a real, live human being.

As regular readers know, the General Assembly passed a slew of statutes affecting our criminal law this summer, including controlled substances law.  In S.L. 2025-70 (S.B. 429), the legislature created the new offense of exposing a child to a controlled substance. The same session law increased the penalties for most fentanyl offenses. With  S.L. 2025-71 (S.B. 311), the legislature created several new crimes addressing the unauthorized possession or distribution of embalming fluid. These changes all become effective December 1, 2025. Read on for the details.   

In case you missed it, I wanted to remind folks that the Public Defense Education team here, with support from the Office of Indigent Defense Services, is proud to offer […]

The Alamo announced last week that it’s got Pee-wee’s stolen red bicycle, as foretold in the 1985 film “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.” But the bike is not in the basement. The AP reports that the iconic bicycle will serve as a centerpiece in the Mays Family Legacy Gallery, part of a new visitor center and museum scheduled to open in fall 2027. Read on for more criminal law news.

The law that governs which cases begin under juvenile jurisdiction changed three times between 2019 and 2025. Each change applies to offenses beginning on and after the effective date of the legislation and is impacted by subsequent changes. This blog pulls the different changes together in one place, providing the quick reference chart below to explain which cases begin under juvenile jurisdiction and which cases begin under criminal jurisdiction.

One of the top stories this week was the announcement by the Department of Justice that they intend to recommend a one-day, time-served sentence for former Louisville, Kentucky police officer, Brett Hankison. Hankinson was tried and convicted in federal court for using excessive force in violation of Breonna Taylor’s civil rights. Taylor was killed by police officers after they executed a no-knock search warrant around midnight on March 13, 2020. Taylor’s romantic partner mistook the officers for intruders and fired a shot, wounding one of the officers. Officers then collectively fired 22 shots, resulting in Taylor’s death. Although no shots fired by Hankinson hit Taylor, he fired ten times through a glass door and a window, and three of the shots entered an adjacent apartment occupied by another family. Hankinson’s conviction carries a maximum sentence of life, and his presentence report recommends a sentence of between 11- and 14-years imprisonment. The Justice Department contends that the felony conviction, lost firearms rights, and lost ability to work as a law enforcement officer is punishment enough, given that Hankinson did not injure anyone and was returning fire. Read on for more criminal law news.

Floods have gripped the nation. From Texas, to New Mexico, to here in central North Carolina, severe floods have taken lives and devastated communities. In Texas, floods have killed over 120 people statewide, with over 160 still missing. Due to substantial damage, recovery efforts have slowed, signaling a long road ahead for those with missing loved ones. In New Mexico, flash flooding on Tuesday killed three people and severely damaged the mountain community of Ruidoso—which just spent a year recovering from devastating wildfires and flooding in 2024. Locally, tropical storm Chantal brought heavy flooding across five counties on Sunday evening, taking six lives. Thunderstorms and flooding have continued through the week, striking Durham on Wednesday and multiple counties last night. For those affected, click here for shelter options, water notices, and other flood relief resources. Local businesses and charities are also leading the way in collecting and distributing donations. Read on for the latest in criminal law news.  

Last month, the School of Government’s Criminal Justice Innovation Lab released a new report evaluating the implementation of social work positions in North Carolina public defender offices. This report is the culmination of an eighteen-month partnership between the Lab and the Office of Indigent Defense Services (IDS) to learn more about the day-to-day function of social workers, explore the benefits and challenges of integrating social work staff, and develop recommendations for other offices interested to add or expand social work capacity. This post summarizes the findings from the implementation evaluation and the accompanying recommendations.