A UNC School of Government Blog
Hot sauce, simulated sex, and echoes of the notorious Abu Ghraib prison are allegedly involved in one of this week’s most disturbing stories. Yahoo! News reports here that six inmates from Sampson Correctional Institution claim that prison staff “forced them to perform numerous humiliating acts for the entertainment of guards, including stripping nude and pretending … Read more
“Only an idiot drives on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus.” So read a sign that an Ohio judge ordered a woman to wear after being convicted for the acts caught on video here. Apparently it was not an isolated incident. A parent whose daughter rode the bus said the defendant “did this almost … Read more
May a man be held criminally responsible for the contents of his girlfriend’s purse? Yes, on the facts of State v. Mitchell, the court of appeals ruled yesterday. In Mitchell, an officer stopped the defendant for speeding. The officer ordered the defendant and his girlfriend out of the car. Subsequent events, not highly relevant here, … Read more
This Gallup survey reports that Americans view lawyers negatively. Perhaps the survey respondents should get to know Chris Beechler, a criminal defense attorney from Winston-Salem. This Winston-Salem Journal article describes Chris as a “clothes horse,” an “amateur comedian,” and as a “guy who looks a little bit like Fred Flintstone.” I’ve known Chris for several … Read more
In a paper here I analyze Williams v. Illinois, the U.S. Supreme Court’s latest confrontation decision on substitute analyst testimony. Because Williams was a fractured opinion in which no rationale garnered five votes, it didn’t answer a lot of questions. Three companion cases recently decided by the California Supreme Court show how one court is … Read more
A new justice is coming to the North Carolina Supreme Court. Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson is stepping down, and Governor Perdue says that she will appoint a successor. She plans to bypass the judicial nominating commission that she recently created to take politics out of judicial appointments. The News and Observer has more here and here. … Read more
G.S. 14-196.3 prohibits “cyberstalking,” which the statute generally defines to mean using electronic communications to threaten, extort, make an abusive or embarrassing false statement about, or repeatedly harass another person. As Jessie noted in this prior post, cyberstalking has become a frequently charged offense. It can be committed by text message, email, Facebook, and other … Read more
In 2008 the General Assembly enacted two new crimes, rape of a child by an adult offender under G.S. 14-27.2A, and sexual offense with a child by an adult under G.S. 14-27.4A. S.L. 2008-117. Both crimes have special sentencing rules and special provisions for lifetime satellite-based monitoring. Today’s post responds to some of the questions … Read more
G.S. 90-95(a)(1) makes it a crime to knowingly sell or deliver a controlled substance to another person. As a general rule, the delivery of marijuana—a Schedule VI controlled substance—is a Class I felony. G.S. 90-95(b)(2). However, the statute provides that it is not a delivery to transfer for no remuneration less than 5 grams of … Read more
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It puts me in a good mood. I suspect that certain holidays put other people — like judges — in a good mood, too. And there’s some evidence that judges’ sentencing decisions are influenced by factors similar to mood, like the widely-reported study showing that tired judges deny parole more … Read more