North Carolina Criminal Law

Courtroom Interpreter: Need vs. Want

February 13, 2020February 11, 2020 Jonathan Holbrook

As Prof. Shea Denning mentioned in her post yesterday, the School of Government and the Conference of District Attorneys jointly presented the Practical Skills for New Prosecutors course last week. In addition to covering relevant criminal law and ethical rules, the program also addressed the nuts and bolts of running a courtroom and moving the docket — complex tasks that present unique challenges of their own.

One issue from the mechanics and procedure realm that caught my attention was a point that came up during the session on courtroom interpreters and other language services. In the hectic and fast-paced world of district court, how should attorneys and the court respond to a person who says that he or she does not want an interpreter, but there is reason to believe that the person may actually need one? Conversely, what about when someone asks for an interpreter, but he or she seems able to communicate adequately without one? What are the standards and guidelines for deciding if an interpreter is required?

Five Ethics Rules Every Prosecutor Should Know

February 10, 2020 Shea Denning

The School of Government and the Conference of District Attorneys co-sponsored Practical Skills for New Prosecutors last week. The five-day course includes 12 hours of Professionalism for New Attorneys requirements, so we spent a lot of time talking about professionalism and ethics. While every attorney should, of course, be familiar with the Rules of Professional Conduct, there are five ethics rules that should be at the top of every prosecutor’s list.

News Roundup

February 7, 2020 Christopher Tyner

The Durham Herald-Sun reports that the Durham District Attorney’s Office dismissed a murder charge against Alexander Bishop, a Durham teenager who was accused of killing his father in 2018. The dismissal, based on insufficient evidence, follows a trial court ruling last year that search warrants in the case were invalid because an investigator misrepresented evidence when applying for them. Keep reading for more news.

Case Summaries — N.C. Court of Appeals (2/4/2020)

February 6, 2020 Shea Denning

This post summarizes opinions issued by the Court of Appeals of North Carolina on February 4, 2020.

Proper Notice and Hearing on Judgments for Attorney Fees

February 5, 2020 Jamie Markham

Two recent cases from the Court of Appeals highlight a recurring issue related to money in criminal cases: the requirement to give a defendant notice and an opportunity to be heard before entry of a judgment for attorney fees.

Case Summaries: Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals – January 2020

February 7, 2020February 4, 2020 Phil Dixon

This post summarizes criminal and related decisions published by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in January, 2020. Decisions of interest to state practitioners will be posted on a monthly basis. Previous Fourth Circuit case summaries are available here.

Buckling Up: Part of the Strategy to Reduce Deaths from Impaired Driving

February 3, 2020February 3, 2020 Shea Denning

North Carolina’s Impaired Driving Task Force held its first quarterly meeting of 2020 a few weeks ago. Bill Naff, program manager for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), spoke at the meeting about strategies to reduce impaired driving fatalities. You might be surprised to hear about one strategy that was near the top of the list: Get every vehicle occupant to buckle up.

News Roundup

January 31, 2020 Christopher Tyner

WRAL reports that Durham police announced yesterday that they recently made an arrest in a sexual assault case that occurred more than four years ago. In November 2015, a woman was attacked and sexually assaulted while walking home from work on the Ellerbe Creek Trail. The WRAL report says that investigators were unable to develop strong leads in the case until last fall, when they submitted DNA from the rape kit for testing. That test connected the DNA to Emanuel Dwayne Burch, whose DNA profile was in a national database. The State Crime Lab then connected the DNA in the kit to a new sample taken from Burch. Keep reading for more news.

The Two First Step Acts

January 30, 2020 Jamie Markham

Judges, inmates, and others have asked me about the First Step Act, wondering whether it entitles certain defendants to a reduced sentence or an early release from prison. The confusing thing is that there are two First Step Acts—one federal, and one state. The federal First Step Act was signed into law in late 2018. North Carolina’s First Step Act did not become law.

2018 North Carolina Jail Occupancy Rates

January 29, 2020 Jessica Smith

Local jails are an important part of the state’s criminal justice system. Jails house, among others, individuals held pretrial, serving sentences, and held for federal and other authorities. In this report and in the accompanying spreadsheet (here), we provide information about North Carolina jail occupancy rates. Among other things, we find that:

50% of counties exceeded in-county jail capacity for at least one month in 2018; and
64% of counties exceeded 90% of in-county jail capacity for at least one month in 2018.