A UNC School of Government Blog
A lot of defendants plead guilty. And many of those defendants later try to challenge their pleas through the post-conviction process. Not surprisingly then, I get a lot of questions about what types of claims can be asserted in a motion for appropriate relief (MAR) challenging an unconditional guilty plea. As a general rule, a … Read more
Today, most Supreme Court watchers are focused on the oral argument in the same-sex marriage cases. But the Court also released an important opinion in Florida v. Jardines, ruling that an officer conducts a Fourth Amendment search when he brings a drug dog onto the porch of a house to sniff the front door. Jardines … Read more
This blog passed two million hits this week. It has far surpassed the modest expectations I had when it began. Thanks to everyone who is part of the blog community for contributing to its success. In other news: Bill to allow non-lawyer judges. As the News and Observer notes here, the General Assembly is considering … Read more
Yesterday, Governor McCrory announced his recommended budget for the next two years. It is available here. Any governor’s budget is really just the beginning of a conversation with the General Assembly, so the proposals below may or may not end up in the final budget. Nonetheless, it’s worth looking at the recommended budget to identify … Read more
Suppose a child victim of sexual abuse is referred to a psychologist for counseling. In the course of treatment the child reveals details about the abuse. If the child doesn’t testify at the later sex abuse trial, are the child’s statements to the psychologist admissible under the Rule 803(4) hearsay exception for statements made for … Read more
I’m headed to High Point today to teach a session for magistrates on crimes related to sex offender registration. I’m glad I looked at the slip opinions from the court of appeals before I left. A case decided today answers a somewhat frequently asked question about sex offender registration: Does a PJC for a sex … Read more
Remember Britt v. State, 363 N.C. 546 (2009), in which the state supreme court ruled that a man with a single, non-violent felony conviction from 1979 had a state constitutional right to possess a firearm, making the felon-in-possession law, G.S. 14-415.1 unconstitutional as applied to him? I blogged about Britt here, but several years have … Read more
The lead story of the week – besides the beginning of the ACC tournament, naturally – is the introduction of S 306, a bill designed to break the logjam in the execution of death sentences by, among other things, addressing concerns about medical personnel participating in executions; allowing flexibility regarding the procedures for lethal injection; and … Read more
I previously posted here about the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Chaidez and its holding that Padilla does not apply retroactively. The Court’s ruling meant that lawful permanent resident Roselva Chaidez failed in her attempt to overturn her pre-Padilla federal convictions on the basis that her lawyer neglected to tell her that they would … Read more
The Supreme Court of North Carolina decided Lovette v. Department of Correction last Friday. The case has nothing to do with Laurence Lovette—the man found guilty of killing UNC student body president Eve Carson—whose case was also recently before our appellate courts (discussed here). Rather, it concerned Clyde Vernon Lovette and fellow petitioner Charles Lynch, … Read more