North Carolina Criminal Law Blog

We wish we were singing Hello Dolly but, as you may have heard, Dolly Whiteside, longtime Chief Special Counsel with the Office of Indigent Defense Services (IDS) retired on March 31 after FORTY-THREE YEARS of public service. In her work, Dolly focused primarily on civil commitment, incompetency, and guardianship matters. She has been a tireless advocate, not only for the people whose lives are at stake in those proceedings, but also for the hardworking and dedicated attorneys who represent them. Dolly has been a valued partner to our Public Defense Education team at the School of Government, always willing to lend her expertise and insight when answering legal questions and collaborating on countless educational programs over the years. We will miss her tremendously. Dolly, enjoy retirement—you have more than earned it—but please come back and say Hello.

As sad as we are to see Dolly go, we are equally excited about the appointment of Chad Perry as Chief Special Counsel at IDS. Chad spent close to a decade working as an assistant public defender in Durham County, where he represented clients charged with misdemeanors and felonies as well as clients in civil commitment and youth drug treatment courts. Chad also served as an attorney with the Office of the Inspector General and with the Social Security Administration’s Appeals Council. Most recently, Chad represented respondents in commitment hearings in Wake County for the Office of Special Counsel.

CBS 17 reports that members of the Raleigh Fire and Police departments gathered in downtown Raleigh on Tuesday prior to a city council meeting to protest and call for the city to pay them higher wages.  The City Council was set to consider a 2 percent pay increase for city employees, but those gathered at the protest noted that the cost of living in and around Raleigh has risen more than 2 percent in recent years and that wages weren’t competitive relative to other opportunities.  The CBS 17 report says that vacancies at the police department are at an all-time high, with a vacancy rate around 20%.

This week the United States Senate confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.  Jackson will be the first Black woman to serve on the court when she takes Justice Breyer’s place at the end of the current term, and will be the only current member with experience as a public defender.  Three Republicans joined all Senate democrats to confirm Jackson with a vote of 53 to 47.  Keep reading for more news.

We recently updated our Measuring Justice Dashboard with a new metric on court non-appearance. As with all Dashboard metrics, you can explore the data at the state and county level. Here’s a quick summary of what you’ll see on the Dashboard’s new metric. But if you want to get right to it, click here to access the Dashboard directly.

On Tuesday, President Biden signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law, bipartisan legislation that amends 18 U.SC. § 249 by expressly making lynching a federal hate crime.  A Time article explains that the bill will allow criminal prosecutions in situations where a group of people conspire to commit a hate crime which results in death or serious bodily injury.  The NewsHour aired a lengthy segment this week on the new law and the history of racial violence in the United States.  The bill passed the Senate unanimously and was opposed by only three members of the House of Representatives.  Keep reading for more news.

Today is GiveUNC, the University’s annual day of giving. As Dean Mike Smith is set to step down as Dean at the end of this year, today we are celebrating […]

This week the Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace Justice Stephen Breyer on the United States Supreme Court.  Jackson currently sits on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and her prior experience, following graduation from Harvard Law School where she was an editor of the law review, includes serving as vice chair of the United States Sentencing Commission and working as a federal public defender.  Judge Jackson would be the first Black woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court if she is confirmed.

The Juvenile Code requires the court to select the most appropriate disposition for the delinquent juvenile. G.S. 7B-2501(c). Under this statute, the disposition must be designed to protect the public and to meet the needs and best interests of the juvenile based on offense severity, the need for accountability, the importance of protecting public safety, the juvenile’s degree of culpability, and the rehabilitative and treatment needs of the juvenile. There are many different statutory pathways available to the court to structure individualized dispositions targeted to meet the needs of the juvenile and reduce their risk of reoffending. This post explores some of those options, with an emphasis on alternatives outside of standard terms and conditions for probation or placement in out-of-home settings.

Late last week Governor Roy Cooper’s office announced that he had commuted the sentences of three people who were sentenced to lengthy prison terms as teenagers and had served decades behind bars.  April Leigh Barber, now 46, served 30 years in prison after being convicted of killing her grandparents by setting their house ablaze when she was 15 years old; she has a job lined up as a paralegal when she is released, according to WFMY.  Joshua McKay, now 37, served 20 years for the murder of Mary Catherine Young in Richmond County when he was 17; the Richmond County Daily Journal says that he would have been released in November of this year absent the commutation. Finally, Anthony Willis, now 42, has served 26 years for the murder of Benjamin Franklin Miller in Cumberland County at the age of 16; WRAL reports that Willis has earned several college degrees while in prison, including a masters degree.  The commutations were recommended by the Juvenile Sentence Review Board, which Cooper previously established by executive order.  Keep reading for more news.

This post summarizes published criminal decisions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on March 15, 2022. These summaries will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a free and searchable database of case summaries from 2008 to present.