Latest posts in category Uncategorized on North Carolina Criminal Law Blog

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.

This post summarized published criminal and related decisions released by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals during February 2022. Decisions that may be of interest to state practitioners are summarized monthly. Previous Fourth Circuit case summaries are available here.

As the Associated Press reports, countries around the world are calling for an investigation of whether Russia has committed war crimes during its invasion of Ukraine.  In a joint press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda, Vice President Kamala Harris expressed the US Government’s support for the investigation, saying that Russia had committed “atrocities” during the invasion by bombing civilian areas, including an attack on a maternity hospital in Ukraine.  Keep reading for more news.

As Reuters reports, this week Purdue Pharma and its owners the Sackler family agreed to pay $6 billion to resolve litigation brought by a group of state attorneys general related to the company’s substantial culpability for the American opioid epidemic.  The deal is part of bankruptcy proceedings that, if approved, will result in Purdue Pharma ceasing to exist.  In 2020 Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges related to its distribution of OxyContin.  Keep reading for more news.

As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryan were convicted this week by a federal jury of hate crimes related to their murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia two years ago.  All three men were convicted of state murder charges in December of last year.  Outside the courthouse, Arbery’s family celebrated the verdict and thanked supporters for standing by them in what they called a “very long, stressful fight” for justice.  Keep reading for more news.

Were the constitutional rights of defendants who were prosecuted as adults in criminal court for offenses that they committed at ages 16 or 17, and prior to December 1, 2019, violated because the jurisdictional changes under raise the age were not retroactive? The North Carolina Court of Appeals does not think so. The decision in State v. Garrett, 2021-NCCOA-591, answers this question.

Law enforcement officers have a duty to intervene when they have an opportunity to prevent another officer from using unlawful force. That duty comes from multiple sources, including federal constitutional law, a new state statute, and, in some cases, agency policy. But what does the duty require in practice? Is verbal intervention enough, or must the officer attempt to intercede physically? What if the officer has competing obligations, such as keeping control of an unruly scene? And what should an officer do if he or she isn’t sure whether the amount of force another officer is using is appropriate? This post will address how officers and agencies might operationalize the duty to intervene.