Turkey Pardons
Last week, President Trump pardoned Drumstick, a 36-pound turkey. What’s the legal basis for the annual ritual of a president pardoning a turkey? When did the tradition start? And what […]
News Roundup
As the Los Angeles Times reports, notorious cult leader and convicted murderer Charles Manson died this week of natural causes at the age of 83. Manson had spent the past […]
IDS Update with Tom Maher
For today’s post, I conducted a short interview with Tom Maher, the executive director of the Office of Indigent Defense Services (IDS), the statewide agency in North Carolina that oversees […]
Trial Preparation Taints Eyewitnesses’ In-Court Identification, Leads to Reversal of Murder Conviction
Last week, the court of appeals reversed a defendant’s conviction for first-degree murder. That doesn’t happen every day, so let’s unpack the case. The central issue concerns two eyewitnesses’ in-court […]
News Roundup
A California man with connections to North Carolina, Kevin Janson Neal, killed five people and wounded eight others in a shooting spree in Northern California this week. After killing his […]
A Short Graphic Novel on How a Felony Sentence Is Served
I wrote a comic book about prison. Let me explain why.
State v. Brice: Pleading Rules for Habitual Offenses Are Not Jurisdictional
The court of appeals last year vacated Sandra Brice’s conviction for habitual misdemeanor larceny for stealing five packs of steaks valued at $70 from a Food Lion in Hickory. The […]
May a Magistrate Impose Conditions on a Defendant’s Conduct While in Pretrial Detention?
This question in the title of this post came up in a recent class. The specific context involved a domestic violence defendant who was in jail waiting for a judge […]
News Roundup
For the second time in a month, the leading criminal law news in our country is a staggeringly tragic mass shooting. The Las Vegas shooting in early October was the […]
New Gang Sentencing Enhancements
Two new sentencing enhancements related to gangs will come into effect for offenses committed on or after December 1, 2017.