North Carolina Criminal Law Blog

A United States Capitol Police Officer, William “Billy” F. Evans, died this week after he and another officer seemingly were deliberately hit by a car as it was driven into a barricade at the Capitol Building by a man who then threatened other officers with a knife before being shot and killed.  Evans had served with the Capitol Police since 2003.  News reports have emerged suggesting that the perpetrator, 25-year-old Noah Green who was living in Virginia, had been experiencing increasingly delusional thoughts and declining mental health, perhaps attributable in part to drug abuse.  The Associated Press says that investigators believe the attack was an isolated incident.  Keep reading for more news.

The Fayetteville Observer reported this week that an arrest has been made in connection with a road rage shooting last week near Lumberton that killed a Pennsylvania woman traveling with her husband to a beach vacation.  Dejywan R. Floyd has been charged with murder for allegedly shooting into the passenger side of an SUV occupied by Julie and Ryan Eberly after the SUV came close to Floyd’s car during a lane change maneuver on I-95.  Julie Eberly was struck by the gunfire and died.  Keep reading for more news.

  For the entirety of its 90 years of existence, the School of Government’s mission has been focused on the people of North Carolina. Through our commitment to offering high-quality […]

A second mass shooting in the span of a week, this one killing 10 people at a Colorado grocery store, shook the nation on Monday.  Those killed included the first responding police officer, Eric Tally, a father of seven.  The apparent shooter, 21-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, was taken into custody after being shot by police and has been charged wih murder.  News reports indicate that Alissa was wearing a tactical vest and was armed with an assault style rifle that he bought last week.  Keep reading for more news.

A series of shootings in the Atlanta area that left eight people dead is the major criminal law news story of the week and has launched the issue of increasing violence committed against Asians to the forefront of national conversation.  Keep reading for more on this story and other news.

This post summarizes published criminal decisions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on March 16, 2021. Gabrielle Supak and Christopher Tyner prepared these summaries. As always, they will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a free and searchable database of case summaries from 2008 to present.

This post summarizes published criminal law and related decisions released by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in February, 2021, which may be of interest to state practitioners.  Previous summaries of Fourth Circuit cases are available on the SOG website here.

This post summarizes criminal decisions released by the North Carolina Supreme Court on Friday, March 12, 2021.

Chief Justice Paul Newby issued an order on Friday, effective today, extending emergency directives currently in place for an additional thirty days to in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Tomorrow marks a full year of altered court operations, as the first set of COVID-19 emergency directives became effective Monday, March 16, 2020.

Trial began this week for Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for several minutes while arresting him for allegedly using a counterfeit bill at a convenience store.  Chauvin is facing Minnesota state murder and manslaughter charges.  The trial is drawing significant media attention, with some outlets publishing live updates and planning to livestream the proceedings after jury selection is completed.  USA Today reported Thursday that six jurors have been seated and that the state has raised two Batson challenges to defense strikes of Hispanic potential jurors, neither of which have been sustained.  Keep reading for more news.