This week the ACLU of North Carolina and North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services filed a class action lawsuit in state court arguing that solitary confinement practices used in the state’s prisons constitute cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the state constitution. In the suit, the plaintiffs say that people in solitary confinement “face substantial risks of serious psychological and physiological harm” and ask for a court order ceasing current practices and directing the formulation of new ones that comply with the constitution. Two of the named plaintiff inmates each have been in solitary confinement for more than 10 years; about 3,000 inmates were in solitary confinement at the end of July of this year. The News Roundup previously has noted that the Department of Public Safety has been investigating ways to reduce the use of solitary confinement. Keep reading for more news.
Case Summaries: N.C. Court of Appeals (October 15, 2019)
This post summarizes published criminal decisions (and two other decisions of note) from the North Carolina Court of Appeals decided on October 15, 2019.
Occupational Licensing Reforms and Criminal Convictions
In legislation that may have escaped the notice of some criminal law practitioners, the North Carolina General Assembly enacted significant reforms this year to the state’s occupational licensing laws. The reforms, which apply to applications for licensure submitted on or after October 1, 2019, significantly lessen legal barriers to obtaining an occupational license for people with a criminal conviction. The legislation, S.L. 2019-91 (H 770), received bipartisan support, passing both chambers unanimously.
CLE at the School of Government
The School of Government and the North Carolina Judicial College are pleased to announce our second annual CLE event. Reviews from last year’s event were extremely positive so we’re doing it again! It’s an event for everyone, with outstanding teachers addressing topics selected to be of interest to anyone practicing law. The event will offer … Read more
News Roundup
Last week the North Carolina State Bar was the target of a ransomware attack, a type cyberattack where the attacker gains control of a computer system and demands a ransom in exchange for relinquishing control of the system. As the State Bar explained in a statement late last week, the attack began as an infiltration of a single server and quickly spread to other servers, encrypting systems running on the servers as it went. It appears that personally identifiable information was not compromised by the ransomware, but the State Bar website and its membership and CLE portals were disabled. As of Tuesday, the website was back up and limited access to the portals was restored, though any changes made to the membership and CLE databases from September 24 through September 30 were lost. Keep reading for more news.
Assess Court Costs Once for All Related Charges Adjudicated Together
When a defendant has multiple charges adjudicated together in the same hearing or trial, and those charges arose from the same underlying event or transaction, the court should assess costs only once. That’s the new rule according to State v. Rieger, a case recently decided by the court of appeals.
Changing Charges after State v. Bryant
Brittany Bryant was charged with misdemeanor larceny for allegedly stealing acne toner and towelettes valued at $14.94 of from a Wal-Mart in Raleigh. The prosecutor agreed to reduce the charge from larceny to shoplifting. She accomplished that in a manner familiar to district court practitioners. She struck through the charging language of the citation, wrote in “shoplifting,” and initialed and dated the document. Bryant then pled guilty to shoplifting by concealing merchandise and was sentenced.
Bryant later sought to set aside her conviction on the basis that the prosecutor improperly amended the citation. The court of appeals agreed, holding in State v. Bryant, ___ N.C. App. ___ (October 1, 2019), that the amendment was improper and deprived the district court of jurisdiction.
Bryant has left many wondering how misdemeanor charges may be amended to charge different, and less serious, offenses without subjecting the convictions to collateral attack.
Case Summaries–Fourth Circuit Decisions (Sept. 2019)
This post summarizes published decisions from the Fourth Circuit of interest to state practitioners from September, 2019.
Trespass and Public Buildings
A person commits first-degree trespass when he or she “without authorization . . . enters or remains . . . in a building of another.” G.S. 14-159.12(a). But aren’t members of the public “authoriz[ed]” to enter public buildings? And given that public buildings belong to all of us, do they even count as buildings “of another”? In other words, is it possible to commit a trespass in a public building?