A UNC School of Government Blog
I thought I’d take a minute to discuss three questions that I get about prescription drugs. [Update: Several people posted comments or emailed me about the relationship between prescription drugs and controlled substances. I discussed that issue in some detail in this post, but briefly, some prescription drugs contain controlled substances and some don’t. Certainly, … Read more
It’s time for the first news roundup of the new year! There have been quite a few interesting stories recently, including the following: 1. The New York Times reports that cell phones are widespread in prison. One Georgia inmate reports that “almost everybody has a phone,” usually a smartphone. In addition to playing FarmVille on … Read more
The Department of Correction runs substance abuse treatment programs for probationers and certain parolees: DART-Cherry in Goldsboro for men, and, as of last year, Black Mountain Substance Abuse Treatment Center for women (about which you can read more here). DOC is making changes at DART-Cherry. Previously, there were two program tracks there: a 28-day cognitive-based … Read more
Under the common law doctrine of aiding and abetting, a person is considered to be a principal to a crime when: (1) a crime is committed by another, (2) the person knowingly advises, instigates, encourages, procures, or helps the other person commit the crime, and (3) his or her actions or statements caused or contributed … Read more
As I noted in a previous post, it is a crime under G.S. 14-454(b) “willfully and without authorization . . . [to] access[] . . . any computer.” I posed a few scenarios in that earlier post, including one in which a judge tells a law clerk not to use the internet during business hours … Read more
Happy new year! It’s great to be back at work after a relaxing vacation. I’ve written before about traffic stops. Recently, I returned to the subject and completed a pretty detailed primer on traffic stops and the Fourth Amendment. The paper, which is available here, treats traffic stops chronologically. First it addresses when a traffic … Read more
Tomorrow’s a holiday, and the blog is going on vacation next week, so this will be the last post of 2010. Before rounding up the news, I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who reads, subscribes to, posts comments on, suggests topics for, or contributes in any other way to this blog. It … Read more
State law requires the driver of a vehicle involved in a reportable accident to immediately notify the appropriate law enforcement agency of the crash. G.S. 20-166.1. A reportable accident is a crash that results in (1) a person’s injury or death, (2) property damage of at least $1,000, or (3) property damage to a vehicle … Read more
It is a regular condition of probation for all supervised probationers that they “[r]emain within the jurisdiction of the court unless granted written permission to leave by the court or [their] probation officer.” G.S. 15A-1343(b)(2). What does “jurisdiction” mean in that statute? The county in which probation was imposed? The judicial district? The entire state? … Read more
State court decisions from other southeastern states seem to carry a bit more weight as persuasive authority than do cases from jurisdictions that are farther afield. Therefore, I thought I’d summarize a recent decision by the Georgia Court of Appeals about searching cell phones incident to arrest. The case is Hawkins v. State. A police … Read more