North Carolina Criminal Law Blog

Additional information came to light last week in the case against Luigi Mangione, the 27-year-old man accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, during a key pretrial hearing on a […]

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Many law enforcement agencies have policies prohibiting officers from associating with criminals, or with felons. From time to time, an officer is disciplined or terminated for violating such a policy. […]

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This post summarizes the published criminal opinions from the Supreme Court of North Carolina released on December 12, 2025.

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This post summarizes published criminal law cases released by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals during November 2025. Cases of potential interest to state practitioners are summarized monthly. Previous summaries […]

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Last month, a federal judge dismissed mortgage fraud charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James based on what the court determined was the improper appointment of Acting United States […]

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Elizabeth Holmes, who was convicted in 2022 for defrauding investors and is now serving time in federal prison, claimed this week that a key piece of evidence against her was […]

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The North Carolina Supreme Court in State v. Chemuti, __ N.C. __, 920 S.E.2d 810 (2025), clarified the interplay between the statutory provisions in G.S. 132-1.4A governing release of certain […]

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Last week, I posted a short blog discussing the new category of violent offenses as defined by G.S. 15A-531(9). The post includes a chart of qualifying offenses for those who […]

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For many years, it has been the rule in North Carolina that when multiple sentences of imprisonment are imposed, they run concurrently by default. That has been required by statute since 1977. G.S. 15A-1354. And that statute carried forward prior law that “sentences are to run concurrently unless otherwise specified.” Id. Official Commentary.  Effective today, that default rule is removed.

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December 1 is approaching, which means that many of the changes enacted by the General Assembly this session will be taking effect soon. Among the pending changes are those enacted by Iryna’s law (H 307), which I covered in greater detail in an earlier blog post. This follow-up post focuses on the new category of “violent offenses.”

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