North Carolina Criminal Law Blog

Much of the conversation at one of the first Juvenile Jurisdiction Advisory Committee meetings I attended centered on “doughnut hole” youth. The meeting participants were discussing the long pause between when raise the age legislation passed in June of 2017 until the time it would take effect in December of 2019. Many 16- and 17-year-old youth would continue to be convicted in criminal court for things that the legislature had already determined should be juvenile offenses for youth their age. Caught in between passage and implementation, these kids were in the “doughnut hole.” The legislature included a remedy for these youth, and many others, in the Second Chance Act (S562) that was ratified on June 17, 2020. Certain misdemeanor and Class H and I felony convictions for offenses committed before raise the age took effect and when the person was 16 or 17, can now be expunged. This new expunction opportunity is available to any person with an existing conviction from the age of 16 or 17 that would now fall under juvenile jurisdiction and not just the young people who were caught in the doughnut hole.

There was notable criminal law legislation in the General Assembly this week where lawmakers unanimously passed the North Carolina First Step Act and the Second Chance Act.  As the News & Observer reports, some legislators have said that the fact that the bills had unanimous support is a signal that the legislature may take up additional criminal justice reform legislation.  The bills now go to Governor Roy Cooper, who one of the bills’ cosponsors blamed for over-incarceration in the state, for approval.  Keep reading for more on this story and other news.

This post summarizes published criminal cases issued by the North Carolina Court of Appeals on June 16, 2020.

As always, these summaries will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a free, searchable database of case annotations from 2008 to today.

Thanks to Chris Tyner for preparing the majority of these summaries.

This post summarizes an opinion issued by the United States Supreme Court on June 15, 2020.

WRAL reports that in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, the police departments in Raleigh, Durham, and Fayetteville generally are adopting policies consistent with the “8 Can’t Wait” campaign which advocates for reduced use of force policing practices.  Among the eight policy suggestions is a ban on chokeholds and strangleholds.  Keep reading for more on this story and other news.

This post summarizes opinions issued by the Supreme Court of North Carolina on June 5, 2020.

The nation has been gripped by protests this week following the death of George Floyd while he was in police custody in Minneapolis.  As the News Roundup noted last week, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pinned Floyd’s neck to the ground with his knee for nearly nine minutes while Floyd, who was handcuffed, pleaded that he could not breathe and bystanders repeatedly told Chauvin and other officers at the scene that Floyd appeared to be in great distress.  A memorial service for Floyd, who had family in North Carolina and was born in Fayetteville, is scheduled to be held on Saturday in Raeford, where his sister lives.  Keep reading for more on this story and other news.

This post summarizes opinions issued by the North Carolina Court of Appeals on June 2, 2020.

Each year the School of Government summarizes legislation enacted by the North Carolina General Assembly affecting criminal law and procedure. If you would like to receive periodic summaries of enacted legislation (as well as summaries of appellate decisions), subscribe at no charge to the School’s criminal law listserv here. We also explore selected legislation in more depth on this blog. So far in 2020, one bill has been enacted that affects criminal law and procedure.

Carolina Public Press reports that last week three current and former employees of the Cherokee County Department of Social Services were indicted on a range of charges arising from an alleged “yearslong Cherokee County DSS practice that separated children from their parents without the oversight of a judge.” Former Cherokee DSS director Cindy Palmer (who now is the department’s business officer), former Child Protective Unit supervisor David Hughes, and the department’s former attorney, Scott Lindsay, were charged with various felonies and misdemeanors arising from the practice.  Keep reading for more on this story and other news.