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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.

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 […]

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.

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.

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.

This post summarizes published decisions from the Fourth Circuit of interest to state practitioners from September, 2019.

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?

As WRAL reports, former state congressman and state Republican Party chairman Robin Hayes pleaded guilty in federal court this week to lying to the FBI during a bribery investigation involving political donor Greg Lindberg.  Hayes was accused of helping Lindberg, who also has been indicted along with two associates, attempt to bribe North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey for favorable treatment of Lindberg’s insurance businesses.  Causey reported the scheme and worked with federal authorities during the investigation. Conspiracy and bribery charges, as well as additional charges of lying to the FBI, were dismissed as part of a plea deal that requires Hayes to cooperate with the government in related prosecutions.  Keep reading for more news.

Five years ago, the UNC School of Government published a unique manual, Raising Issues of Race in North Carolina Criminal Cases, as part of our Defender Manual Series. Supported by a grant from the Z Smith Reynolds Foundation, the manual examines how issues of race and bias can improperly influence criminal processes and outcomes, and it suggests strategies for lawyers to consider when addressing these issues. I coauthored the manual with former Defender Educator Alyson A. Grine, Professor John Rubin edited it, and a stellar volunteer advisory board, including James Williams, Tye Hunter, Rich Rosen, Mary Pollard, and Breana Smith, provided guidance during the creation of the manual.

This post provides summaries of the published criminal opinions issued by the North Carolina Supreme Court on September 27, 2019, and the North Carolina Court of Appeals on October 1, 2019.