North Carolina Criminal Law Blog

We have issued a series of reports on North Carolina state and county-level jail occupancy rates, including one in October 2020 focusing on changes in total county and statewide jail occupants during the COVID-19 pandemic (our earlier reports are here, here and here). This report provides updated jail population numbers through November 2020. Please refer to our prior reports for information on data sources and calculations.

WNCT reports that the Greenville Police Department and the Pitt County Sheriff’s Department, in partnerships with Integrated Family Services, will soon launch Co-Responder Mental Health Response Programs.  Under the GPD program, which starts next week, IFS professionals will work directly out of police headquarters and respond alongside law enforcement officers to situations involving possible mental health crises.  The GPD program, which will be the first of its kind in eastern North Carolina, will begin next week, and the program at the Sheriff’s Department will begin later this spring.  Keep reading for more news. 

The Juvenile Justice Reinvestment Act (JJRA), which raised the age of juvenile court jurisdiction to include youth who commit offenses at ages 16 and 17, went into effect on December 1, 2019. What impacts have been realized in the juvenile justice system as a result? The Juvenile Jurisdiction Advisory Committee (JJAC), created by the JJRA, submitted its required interim report to the General Assembly on January 15, 2021. The report provides many details about the first year of implementation as well as JJAC recommendations for legislative amendments and ongoing budgetary needs. This blog provides a summary of some of the trends during the first year of raise the age implementation as detailed in the report.

The Greensboro News & Record reports that Christopher Spencer of Pilot Mountain has become the first North Carolinian to face federal charges in connection with the deadly insurrection at the United States Capitol earlier this month.  The report says that Spencer has been charged with obstructing official proceedings, unlawful entry, and disorderly conduct.  Investigators apparently were aided by Facebook livestreams Spencer allegedly posted showing him encouraging others to kick open doors in the building and yelling obscenities at police officers.  His father Winston Spencer told the News & Record that his son’s participation in the incident “has been blown out of proportion.”  Keep reading for more news.

Recently questions came to me and my SOG criminal law colleagues about the crime of burglary in North Carolina that made it clear some readers would benefit from a discussion of statutory versus common law definitions of criminal offenses, as well as how to research legislative history. I will address these two issues using one scenario across a couple of blog posts. I hope these posts will help in interpreting and understanding statutes.

This post summarized published criminal and related decisions from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decided in December, 2020, that may be of interest to state practitioners.

The deadly attack on the United States Capitol by extremist supporters of President Donald Trump continues to dominate the national news this week as federal and state law enforcement agencies undertake the massive task of identifying and arresting perpetrators from across the country.  Keep reading for more on this story and other news.

Readers no doubt already are aware of the criminal law news of this sad week in America where President Donald Trump is being blamed for inciting extremist political supporters to engage in a violent siege on the United States Capitol.  One person, Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, was shot dead by police as she and other rioters attempted to breach a barricaded door in the Capitol.  The deadly force used to repel Babbitt was remarkable in its singularity – throngs of rioters beset the Capitol and met little resistance, with video footage showing some police officers moving barriers, standing aside, and even posing for selfies in the midst of what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell later called a “failed insurrection.”  Keep reading for more news.

This post summarizes published criminal decisions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on December 31, 2020. The summaries were prepared by Shea Denning, Jamie Markham, Chris Tyner, Gabrielle Supak, and Jonathan Holbrook. As always, these summaries will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a free and searchable database of case summaries from 2008 to present.

On January 2020, North Carolina’s Judicial Districts 21 (Forsyth County) and 2 (Washington, Beaufort, Martin, Tyrrell, and Hyde counties) implemented bail reform. In both jurisdictions, reforms were implemented after a […]