Articles in the Uncategorized category - Page 103 of 153

As previously noted by the News Roundup, the FBI was able to unlock an iPhone belonging to one of the shooters in the San Bernardino terror attacks without Apple’s assistance.  Now that the FBI has this capability, local law enforcement agencies and district attorneys’ offices anticipate that they will ask the FBI to help access cellphones in investigations of criminal offenses, according to a report from the Charlotte Observer.  The report indicates that about 20 percent of the phones examined by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s cybercrime unit are encrypted and the unit has been unable to access information on the devices.  Keep reading for more news.

In 2015, the Office of Indigent Defense Services (IDS) asked the School of Government to conduct an online survey of how superior and district court judges view IDS’s administration of indigent defense in North Carolina. Last week, the School issued its report of the survey results, Trial Judges’ Perceptions of North Carolina’s Office of Indigent Defense Services: A Report on Survey Results (March 2016) (referred to below as the Report). The verdict? Judges have a positive view of IDS’s performance, overall and in several key areas, but the results include a few warning signs for indigent defense.

Local and national reaction to the General Assembly’s approval in a one-day special session last week of House Bill 2, the “Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act,” is dominating the news.  The Charlotte Observer’s initial report about the bill being signed into law is available here.  Over on the SOG Coates’ Canons blog, Trey Allen has a thorough overview of the new law and Norma Houston takes a look at its impact on city and county contracts.  In connection with the Charlotte controversy, Jeff considered the criminal implications of restroom usage by the opposite sex in this post from last year.

Proponents have argued that the new law is intended to protect public safety, but critics say it is discriminatory.  The News and Observer reports that Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Roy Cooper has announced that his office will not defend the law which has already been challenged in federal court.  In response, Governor Pat McCrory released a video criticizing Cooper’s decision, and N.C. Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger called for Cooper to resign.  Keep reading for more news.

A few years ago, I attend the Judicial Conference of the Fourth Circuit, where I heard Bryan Stevenson speak. The address was captivating. Stevenson spoke of representing the wrongly accused and the wrongly convicted. He told of advocating for juveniles who were incarcerated with adults and who were sexually abused as a result. He urged the audience to get a little closer to the criminal justice system, and to look a little more carefully at it. Now Stevenson has written a book, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. Among many other awards, it was named a best book of the year by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Time magazine. I thought it was good, but not great.

The SOG is closed for a holiday tomorrow, so the News Roundup is coming to you a day early.  This week’s top news story is the bombing of the airport and a metro station in Brussels.  USA Today has full coverage of the attack here.  Three explosions were reported and at least 34 people were confirmed dead in the attack at the time of writing.   According to USA Today, the Islamic State has taken credit for the attack and Belgium’s federal prosecutor confirmed that the bombings were the work of terrorists.  WRAL has a story about a local man who was in Brussels Airport and survived the bombing.  Keep reading for more news.

President Obama announced that he has selected Merrick B. Garland as his nominee for the vacant seat on the Supreme Court.  The New York Times has an overview article about the nomination that states that it “sets in motion a standoff that is likely to play out for many months, perhaps without resolution.”  Garland is currently serving as the chief judge of the District of Columbia Circuit, and reportedly is broadly respected for his work.  A range of news outlets have published pieces on Garland’s background.  The Obama administration’s is here; The Chicago Tribune’s is here; Newsweek’s is here; The Atlantic’s is here.  The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog has a collection of reactions to the nomination from people in the legal field here.  Hit the break for more news.

In 2014, 1,284 people were killed in traffic accidents in North Carolina. Most of those people were occupants in a passenger car, though motor vehicle crashes also claimed the lives of 172 pedestrians, 190 motorcyclists and 19 bicyclists. Seventy percent of the fatalities resulted from crashes that did not involve an alcohol-impaired driver. While it is fairly easy to determine the appropriate criminal charge when a person drives while impaired and proximately causes the death of another, it is less obvious what the appropriate charge is when a driver’s violation of another type of traffic statute proximately causes someone else’s death.

Former First Lady Nancy Reagan died on Sunday.  The L.A. Times has full coverage of her death here.  As noted in this article, Reagan was influential in the anti-drug policies of Ronald Reagan’s presidency and is responsible for the “Just Say No” slogan that is recognized across the nation.  Reagan lies in repose at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library ahead of a funeral scheduled for today.  More news after the break:

The Atlantic reports that people attending Supreme Court oral arguments on Monday were “gobsmacked” when Justice Clarence Thomas asked a government attorney a question from the bench.  It’s been ten years since Thomas last asked a question in court.  The article suggests that Thomas’s broken silence is “powerful evidence” that the court has changed since Justice Scalia’s death a few weeks ago, and notes that no current Justice has ever sat on the court without Scalia.  A blog post from Sentencing Law and Policy indicates that the Justices did not grant review in any new cases this week and anticipates that the Supreme Court docket likely will be kept relatively light given that the court now faces the possibility of finding itself in a 4-4 tie in high profile cases.

As if things weren’t sufficiently unsettled on the high court already, the lights in the courtroom unexpectedly went out during Monday’s oral argument.  The Justices reportedly continued asking questions in the dark.  Let’s take a look at the other news of the week:

The unexpected death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia continues to dominate the national news this week.  USA Today reports that the high court appeared to be split in a 4-4 deadlock at oral argument of a criminal case involving the exclusionary rule on Monday; Orin Kerr has more analysis of the legal issue here.  President Obama made a guest post to SCOTUSblog where he explains that he takes his constitutional duty to appoint judges to the Supreme Court seriously, and vows to nominate someone to fill Scalia’s seat in the coming weeks.  The Washington Post reports that Scalia was in the company of “high-ranking members of an exclusive fraternity for hunters called the International Order of St. Hubertus” at the Cibolo Creek Ranch on the weekend of his death.  More news after the break: