We previously reported on North Carolina state and county-level criminal charging data. In our earlier report (here) we provided data on charges, charged defendants and charged cases for felonies and misdemeanors, and broke misdemeanors down into non-traffic and traffic offenses. In this report, we present more detailed information about the nature of the felony and misdemeanor charges brought in North Carolina in 2019. For felony offenses, we provide data at the state and county level on, among other things, the number of non-violent and violent felony charges, and separate out drug charges. At the misdemeanor level, we parse the data into still more categories, including breakdowns for, among other things, DWI and related charges, non-DWI traffic charges, ordinance violations, and non-violent and violent misdemeanor charges. There is a lot to unpack in our new spreadsheet. In this report, we present some of the top line results. A spreadsheet with the data is available here.
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News Roundup
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.
Case Summaries – NC Court of Appeals (June 2, 2020)
This post summarizes opinions issued by the North Carolina Court of Appeals on June 2, 2020.
An Update on Prisons and Jails as the Courts Expand Operations
As the court system expands operations this week, people have questions about the current status of the correctional system. Today’s post covers some of the things we know.
2020 Criminal Law Legislation
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.
News Roundup
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.
New Paper on Restitution
Today’s post shares a short paper on restitution that I recently prepared for the Conference of District Attorneys. I thought it might also be useful to other audiences.
Juvenile Justice Pandemic Lessons
The Juvenile Jurisdiction Advisory Committee (JJAC) met on May 15th. The meeting began with a presentation from William Lassiter, Deputy Secretary for Juvenile Justice. While the goal of the presentation was to provide data on trends since implementation of raise the age and the resulting resource needs, the presentation included information and data about juvenile justice system trends during this unprecedented pandemic. The data left me wondering—can changes in juvenile justice system utilization during the pandemic teach us lessons for the functioning of the system outside of a pandemic?
Case Summaries—Court of Appeals (5/19/2020)
This post summarizes opinions issued by the North Carolina Court of Appeals on May 19, 2020.
News Roundup
This week several North Carolina news outlets jointly reported that a nurse at Caswell Correctional Center, Barbara Anne Stewart, died earlier this month after testing positive for the coronavirus. Stewart, who fell ill in late March, had worked for the Department of Public Safety for more than 25 years according to the report. The North Carolina Department of Labor now is investigating her death, including examining whether any violations of health and safety standards contributed to her illness. Keep reading for more news.