A UNC School of Government Blog
A couple of weeks ago, the court of appeals decided State v. Davis, __ N.C. App. __ (2012). For prosecutors, defense lawyers, and judges handling sex crime cases, it’s a significant opinion concerning Rule 404(b). The defendant in Davis was charged with indecent liberties and first-degree sexual offenses based primarily on his young son’s reports … Read more
In 2012, a person on supervised probation for an offense that occurred before December 1, 2011 moves to another state without permission. Months later he is arrested there and brought back to North Carolina for a violation hearing. May he be revoked for absconding? I don’t think so. This post discusses why. Effective for offenses … Read more
An interesting thing happened to me recently at a cocktail party. Before you get too excited let me say that this is a PG blog post! And it’s about the law! Anyway, an experienced trial lawyer (perhaps emboldened by drink?) got all up in my grill and asserted: “I know the evidence rules backwards and … Read more
Results from the July bar examination are now available. Apparently, there were some, um, irregularities in the administration of the test. Above The Law reports that “[o]ne test site — which appears to have been a giant livestock pen at the state fairgrounds — lost power, causing all kinds of drama as the students tried … Read more
I don’t think I’ve ever reviewed a book on the blog before — maybe this prior post would qualify — but I recently finished Don’t Shoot, by Paul David Kennedy, a criminologist at John Jay College in New York. It’s available on Amazon here, and I thought that others might find it interesting. Kennedy has worked … Read more
Under G.S. 15A-1340.14(e), a defendant’s prior out-of-state convictions count by default as Class I felonies if the other jurisdiction classifies them as a felony, or as Class 3 misdemeanors if the other jurisdiction classifies them as a misdemeanor. The State or the defendant may, however, attempt to depart from those default classifications through a preponderance-of-the-evidence … Read more
Jeff previously posted his “cocktail party review” of significant criminal law legislation passed this year by the North Carolina General Assembly, or at least legislation people might be interested in asking you questions about. Consider this the après-party review, when we go through the entire house, look for anything left behind, and give everything a … Read more
About a year and a half ago I did a blog post here about trial in the defendant’s absence. The recent Court of Appeals case, State v. Anderson, suggests that a quick update is in order. As noted in my earlier post, the right to be present at trial is a personal right that may … Read more
Can you name all nine Justices of the United States Supreme Court? Take a moment and test yourself before you read on. How did you do? If you were able to name even one Justice, you are better informed about the Court than most Americans. According to a recent survey, two-thirds of us came up … Read more
A probation violation must be willful. In this prior post I wrote about the burden-shifting process in which the State must prove to the court’s reasonable satisfaction that a violation has occurred, and then the defendant has an opportunity to show that the failure to comply was not willful. The issue often arises in the … Read more