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Because of the state holiday on Friday, there will not be a News Roundup this week but we have a job announcement that may interest blog readers. The School of […]

This post summarizes published criminal decisions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals decided on April 7, 2020.

This post summarizes the published criminal cases from the North Carolina Supreme Court issued on April 3, 2020, and two decisions from the United States Supreme Court issued on April 6 and March 23, 2020.

Thanks to John Rubin and Chris Tyner for preparing the U.S. Supreme Court summaries.

Effective today, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety has placed a 14-day moratorium on the movement of inmates from the county jails to the state prison system. State officials made the decision with the support of the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association to help manage the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chief Justice Cheri Beasley entered an order last Thursday, April 2, 2020, imposing emergency directives that were immediately effective and that affect criminal cases.

Legal authority. The Chief Justice’s order was entered pursuant to G.S. 7A-39(b)(2), which permits the Chief Justice, after determining or declaring that catastrophic conditions exist in one or more counties of the state, to issue emergency directives necessary to ensure the continuing operation of essential trial or appellate court functions. Such directives are effective notwithstanding any other provision of law.

As WLOS reports, a man who fired shots at a law enforcement officer in downtown Asheville on Tuesday morning was shot and killed by deputies who were at the Buncombe County Courthouse and responded to the nearby scene.  Shane Tilman Kent was killed after shooting a 9mm handgun from inside a parked vehicle near the courthouse.  One sheriff’s office lieutenant involved in the incident sustained injuries to his arm, either from a bullet or broken glass from the car Kent was in when he was shot.  The SBI now is assisting in the investigation.  Keep reading for more news.

This post summarizes published criminal and related decisions from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in March, 2020. Decisions of interest to state practitioners will be posted on a monthly basis. Previous summaries of Fourth Circuit criminal and related decisions can be found here.

Whenever I teach about Structured Sentencing, I usually start by saying that the law covers most North Carolina crimes, with a few exceptions. Capital felonies and violent habitual felons have their own sentencing rules. And of course so does impaired driving. But a final exception carved out of Structured Sentencing in G.S. 15A-1340.10 is G.S. 130A-25, failure to comply with health control measures. I don’t typically spend much time on those rules, though, as there are only a handful of convictions under them in the state each year (seven in 2019). Now seemed like a good time to take a look.

The Governor ordered individuals in North Carolina to stay at home and non-essential business operations to cease beginning at 5 p.m. Monday, March 30, 2020. The order, Executive Order No. 121, remains in effect for thirty days from that date. Here are a few things to know about the order and its enforcement.

On Jan. 7, 2020, the Court of Appeals decided State v. Schalow (“Schalow II”), ___ N.C. App. ___, 837 S.E.2d 593, temp. stay allowed, ___ N.C. ___, 837 S.E.2d 123 (Jan. 27, 2020), ruling that the State’s third prosecution of the defendant was vindictive and violated the rules for joinder of offenses. I previously wrote about the Court of Appeals decision in Schalow I regarding a double jeopardy issue (on which the defendant also prevailed), here. The vindictive prosecution holding of Schalow II is itself significant, and I encourage everyone to read the opinion in full for that part of the case alone. In this post, though, I wanted to focus on the joinder issue. This issue in the Schalow II opinion represents the first time that our appellate division has ever granted relief for a joinder of offenses violation.