In a new project launched in January 2024, the UNC School of Government Criminal Justice Innovation Lab (the Lab) is partnering with the North Carolina Office of Indigent Defense Services (IDS) to support stakeholder interest in using social workers as part of a holistic public defense team. The project has two components: a workshop for Chief Public Defenders and an implementation study.
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Does a Magistrate Have the Discretion to Refuse to Issue Criminal Process When Probable Cause Exists?
If I had to answer the question in the title of this post in the briefest possible way, I would say: not usually. But there’s a lot of uncertainty and nuance packed into that short answer. This post gets into the details.
News Roundup
A man convicted for a 2015 killing in New York has been released and his indictment has been dismissed solely because he was held at the wrong prison.
Terrence Lewis was serving a sentence of 22 years to life for second-degree murder in a maximum-security prison. In a February 5 decision, Judge Stephen Miller wrote that Monroe County, NY officials violated the federal “Interstate Agreement on Detainer’s Law” when they sent Lewis back to a federal prison in Pennsylvania—where he was serving a sentence for a drug conviction—as he awaited trial in the New York murder case after his indictment. The agreement says a prisoner charged with an unrelated crime in another jurisdiction must be held and tried in that jurisdiction before being returned to the place of their original imprisonment, or else the case in the other jurisdiction must be dismissed.
Book Review: The Other Dr. Gilmer
It may have something to do with my day-job, but in my free time I generally prefer to read fiction. I made an exception recently for Dr. Benjamin Gilmer’s 2022 nonfiction work, The Other Dr. Gilmer: Two Men, A Murder, and an Unlikely Fight for Justice. I’m glad I did.
The book is a page-turning memoir and legal thriller chock full of North Carolina people and places (Governor Cooper even has a cameo). It also is an indictment of how American society treats (or leaves untreated) the mentally ill, particularly those who are imprisoned.
Criminal Law Faculty Position Now Available
Have you ever thought that it would be interesting to be a member of the School’s faculty? To write, teach, and consult about criminal law and procedure? And to do so with a focus on applied scholarship that makes a real difference? Then you might be interested in the job described later in this post. Or maybe you know someone for whom the position might be perfect. Read on to learn more, and as a bonus, I’ll mention a second job opening at the end of the post – one that has nothing to do with criminal law at all.
News Roundup
Jennifer Crumbley was convicted on Tuesday of four counts of involuntary manslaughter, one count for each student her 15-year-old son Ethan shot and killed at his Michigan High School in November 2021. The pistol Ethan used to kill his classmates was a gift from his parents. The New York Times described the trial, in which the State focused on warning signs they said Ms. Crumbley ignored, as a “significant test case” for prosecutors. While parents whose children have carried out gun violence have pled guilty to less serious charges in other state cases, Ms. Crumbley faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for the four counts of which she was convicted.
Ms. Crumbley’s husband and Ethan’s father, James Crumbley, will be tried in March. Ethan Crumbley previously pled guilty to multiple charges, including first degree murder, and is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. He did not testify at his mother’s trial.
North Carolina Governor’s 2024 Executive Order on Reentry
On January 29, 2024, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper signed an Executive Order joining the national Reentry 2030 initiative. What’s the Reentry 2030 initiative? According to the Reentry 2030 website, the initiative is being led by the Correctional Leaders Association, The Council of State Governments Justice Center, and JustLeadershipUSA. It describes the program as an … Read more
News Roundup
This week Governor Cooper signed an executive order to improve reentry services throughout the state. The order aims to enhance coordination between agencies and increase access to post-release employment opportunities and programs such as work release. With the announcement of the order, North Carolina became the third state (joining Alabama and Missouri) to sign on to Reentry 2030, a national initiative with ambitious goals. The goals include increasing the number of high school and post-secondary credentials earned by incarcerated people by 75%, increasing the number of post-secondary degrees that are available in prisons by 25%, reducing the number of incarcerated people being released homeless by 50%, and allowing every person who is eligible to apply for Medicaid before release. The executive order also calls for more local reentry councils.
Read on for more criminal law news.
May An Officer Ask a Business to Execute a Search Warrant on Itself?
Once upon a time, search warrants were simple. An officer would obtain a warrant to search a suspect’s home or some other physical location connected to a crime. The officer would go to the location, announce his or her presence, and conduct the search. But these days, officers frequently want to obtain records and other evidence from businesses not suspected of any wrongdoing. For example, they want bank records that can be used to trace the suspect’s ill-gotten gains. They want cell site location information that can be used to tie the suspect to the crime scene. And they want email records that show communication between the suspect and his or her coconspirators. Officers do not typically kick down these businesses’ doors and start rummaging around, partly because that would be needlessly disruptive and partly because officers might have a hard time locating evidence stored in the cloud or on a server located who-knows-where. Instead, officers obtain a search warrant, then send a copy of the warrant to the company in question and ask the company to search its own records and provide responsive materials. Is that OK?
New Resource on Employment Outcomes for People Leaving Prison
The North Carolina Department of Commerce has created a new online tool called The NC Reentry Outcome Reporting System. The tool shows employment outcomes for people leaving the state prison system. The numbers are sobering. I had a chance to talk to one of the tool’s architects, Andrew Berger-Gross, Senior Economist at the Department’s Labor … Read more