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As many of you know (mainly because you’ve tried to contact me and I haven’t been available!) Chief Justice Mark Martin appointed me to serve as Reporter for the Criminal Committee of the North Carolina Commission on the Administration of Law and Justice (NCCALJ). This month the NCCALJ is holding public hearings on its reform proposals. One draft proposal, from the Criminal Committee, calls for North Carolina to join the majority of states in the nation and raise the juvenile age to 18. This post provides an update on the Committee’s work on that issue and hopefully will facilitate your comments on the draft proposal.

A shooting that occurred early Sunday morning in Raleigh has made its way into the national news this week.  As CNN reports, Chad Copley has been charged with fatally shooting Kouren-Rodney Bernard Thomas after calling 911 to report that “a bunch of hoodlums” were in front of his house.  Copley then told the dispatcher that he was on neighborhood watch, was “locked and loaded,” and was “going to secure [his] neighborhood.”  Shortly thereafter, a different person called 911 to report a shooting.  The News & Observer reports that investigators allege that Copley fired a shotgun from inside his garage and hit Bernard who was outside.  The case is drawing comparisons to the incident where Trayvon Martin was shot by George Zimmerman.  Keep reading for more news.

The moment you have been anticipating has finally arrived! No, not the start of the Olympics, but the release of Episode 3 of our podcast, Beyond the Bench. It is […]

As the News & Observer reports, late last week the Fourth Circuit struck down significant portions of the Voter Information and Verification Act, legislation passed in 2013 that, among other things, required photo ID at polls and shortened the early voting period.  The Fourth Circuit concluded that certain provisions of the legislation were enacted with racially discriminatory intent, and enjoined the implementation of those provisions.  The News & Observer article says that politicians who support the Act, claiming that it is designed to prevent voter fraud, intend to appeal the decision and consider it to be politically-motivated.  Election officials reportedly are “scrambling to comply” with the ruling.  Keep reading for more news.

North Carolina law prohibits a person who has been convicted of a felony from possessing a firearm. The prohibition, set forth in G.S. 14-415.1, contains narrow exceptions, such as for antique firearms. The question has arisen in several cases whether a person with a prior felony conviction may possess a firearm if necessary to defend himself or others—in other words, whether the person may rely on a justification defense.

In 2014, North Carolina’s voters approved an amendment to the state constitution. The amendment enabled a criminal defendant charged with a crime in superior court to waive his or her right to a jury trial, and instead have his or her guilt or innocence determined by a judge. I wrote a report about the amendment before it was adopted; I wrote about some of the procedural questions raised by the amendment after it passed; and I wrote about 2015 legislation that changed or clarified the waiver procedures. Now we have an appellate case that addresses two issues pertinent to jury trial waivers, so I thought I’d write about that.

The Baltimore Sun reports that prosecutors have dropped all remaining charges against police officers in cases related to the 2015 arrest and death of Freddie Gray.  The decision to end the prosecutions was motivated by the fact that no officer who had already faced trial had been convicted.  Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby reportedly decided that it was unlikely that convictions could be secured in the remaining cases, but defended the decision to bring charges given that the medical examiner’s office classified Gray’s death as a homicide.  Though the state criminal cases are resolved, administrative investigations of the officers are ongoing and the Justice Department is expected to release the results of a civil-rights investigation of the Police Department soon.  Keep reading for more news.

In a previous post, I announced the release of our new podcast, Beyond the Bench. The reaction to the first episode was positive, and I’m happy to say that the […]

Six police officers were shot on Sunday in Baton Rouge in yet another targeted attack on law enforcement officers.  Three of the officers died and the gunman later was killed in a shootout.  Early reports suggest that the shooter, like the perpetrator of the attack in Dallas earlier this month, may have been motivated by recent officer-involved shootings of black men.  President Obama wrote an open letter to law enforcement expressing his support, thanking officers for their service, and urging the nation to come together in a trying time.  Keep reading for more news.

I wrote a post last January about proposed changes to the state’s traffic laws to address bicyclist safety and shared use of the roads by motorists and bicyclists.  I am still smarting from the on-line comments and emails I received as a result. (Before you click on the link and join the chorus, I should clarify that I foolishly used a bit of literary license in that earlier post. I’m not actually hostile to cyclists who pass motor vehicles at a stop light.) Now that the legislature has amended the traffic laws to address these issues, I am reticently returning to the topic to describe those changes. But I’ve learned my lesson. The rest of this post will be strictly the facts.