Articles in the Uncategorized category - Page 55 of 152

The North Carolina Judicial College was founded in 2005 to expand the education and training the School of Government has provided for judicial branch officials since the 1930s. Judicial College […]

Houston news outlet FOX 26 recently highlighted a new report from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at UT Austin that examines COVID deaths in Texas prisons and jails, where the positive test rate is 490% higher than the rate in Texas as a whole.  There are a number of notable findings in the report, including that 80% of people who died from the virus in jails were pretrial detainees and that nine people died after being approved for parole but before they were released. Slightly more than 10% of the people who have died in association with Texas correctional facilities were staff members.  The full report is available here.  Keep reading for more news.

This post summarizes published opinions issued by the Court of Appeals of North Carolina on November 17, 2020.

The Greensboro News & Record reports that jury trials resumed this week in Guilford County after a nearly eight-month suspension due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.  The News & Record story discusses the difficult balance Guilford and other jurisdictions across the state are trying to strike as they grapple with a backlogged trial calendars amid increasing virus infection rates.  Keep reading for more news. 

This post summarizes published decisions from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decided in October, 2020, that may be of interest to state practitioners.

A march from Wayman’s Chapel AME Church in Graham to the Alamance County Court Square on the last day of North Carolina early voting received national attention this week when law enforcement officers used pepper spray to disperse the crowd and made several arrests.  Keep reading for more on this story and other news.

This post summarizes published opinions issued by the Court of Appeals of North Carolina on November 3, 2020.

No one is coming to the North Carolina Criminal Law blog for late-breaking election news. And I have no insight into whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden will garner the 270 electoral votes necessary to serve as the next commander in chief. Nevertheless, I’m writing this post for posterity – and to highlight some down-ballot election results that may impact courts and criminal justice in our state. The election results described below were taken from WRAL.com and the North Carolina State Board of Elections website.

Back in July I wrote a post (here) inviting North Carolina police departments to apply to participate as pilot sites for The Citation Project. Executed by the UNC School of Government’s Criminal Justice Innovation Lab and the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police, The Citation Project seeks to improve policing practices through implementation and rigorous evaluation of a model citation in lieu of arrest policy. Four pilots sites have been selected. They include: Winston-Salem, Wilmington, Apex and Elizabeth City.

This week Amy Coney Barrett was sworn in as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  Barrett took the Constitutional Oath, administered by Justice Thomas, in an evening ceremony at the White House South Lawn on Monday.  On Tuesday morning, Chief Justice Roberts administered Barrett’s Judicial Oath at a private ceremony at the Supreme Court Building.  Barrett’s swearing in followed a confirmation vote in the Senate that fell largely along party lines, with 52 senators voting to confirm her to the court and 48 voting against.  Susan Collins cast the only Republican vote against Barrett’s confirmation, saying the vote was not related to Barrett’s qualifications but a reflection of her view that the vote should have taken place after the upcoming election.  Keep reading for more news.