When Probation Ends
Knowing when probation begins is generally pretty easy. Figuring out when it ends can be a little trickier.
Field Trip to Community Corrections
This morning Jamie Markham and I loaded a passenger van with a group of district court judges who had come to the SOG for a week-long orientation course. We hauled […]
State v. McCaster and the Recalcitrant Probationer
Suppose a defendant is convicted of a class I felony and has a prior record level of I. That’s a “C” block on the felony sentencing grid, where only community […]
Determining Probable Cause for Drug Crimes without Field Tests
Some law enforcement agencies concerned about officers’ exposure to fentanyl have stopped field testing white powders. A question I’ve had several times is whether a magistrate may find probable cause […]
News Roundup
Students across the country walked out of class for 17 minutes at 10:00 a.m. Wednesday morning in a mass protest against gun violence in the wake of the school shooting […]
2018 Sentencing Commission Statistical Report Available
Spring is just around the corner. Daffodils. Daylight saving time. Filling out your bracket. And reading the annual Structured Sentencing Statistical Report for Felonies and Misdemeanors from the North Carolina Sentencing […]
Could Gun Violence Restraining Orders Prevent Another Parkland?
One month ago today, a gunman who police say was armed with an AR-15 rifle walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and opened fire, killing 17 […]
Rule 803(6): Please Hold for the Next Available Representative…
A few weeks ago I participated in a seminar on digital evidence, and one of the topics we discussed was cell phone records (subscriber information, call detail records, historical location […]
How Serious Is a “Serious Bodily Injury”?
Here’s a question for you: which of the following injuries is more serious? The victim, a police officer injured while fighting with a suspect, “sustained puncture wounds [from bites] on […]
News Roundup
This week the Justice Department sued California Governor Jerry Brown and the state’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra, alleging that certain recently enacted California immigration laws are unconstitutional. The New York […]