On TV and in the movies, arrestees are entitled to one phone call upon arrest. In real life, the situation is more complicated.
News Roundup
Sadly, the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando early Sunday morning is the major criminal law news story this week. Forty-nine victims were killed, fifty-three others were wounded, and the gunman died in a shootout with police. The shooting is being characterized as a terror attack and a hate crime. The shooter reportedly pledged allegiance to ISIS and the group has taken credit for the attack. The attack is one of the deadliest criminal homicides in American history, but is not a unique example of hate-fueled violence in our country. Keep reading for more news.
Keeping a Person Under Supervision When There’s No Sentence Left to Suspend
When a person has so much jail credit that he has served his entire sentence of imprisonment, may he nonetheless be sentenced to probation? In other words, may a court sentence someone to probation when there is no sentence left to suspend?
State v. McGrady Confirms NC is a Daubert State: Now What?
The North Carolina Supreme Court held in State v. McGrady, __ N.C.___ (June 10, 2016), that Rule 702(a) of the North Carolina Rules of Evidence incorporates the standard set forth in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, 509 U.S. 579 (1993). That’s what the court of appeals had already said, so it isn’t a big surprise. In McGrady, the application of Daubert led the state supreme court to conclude that the trial court did not err in excluding testimony from an expert in law enforcement training about the defendant’s conscious and unconscious responses to a perceived threat from the victim. McGrady’s analysis opens the door for reconsidering the admissibility of many types of expert testimony previously admitted as a matter of course, including expert testimony from law enforcement experts involving scientific and medical principles.
New North Carolina Appellate Cases on the Meaning of Custody Under Miranda v. Arizona
Probably the most litigated issue involving Miranda v. Arizona is the meaning of custody under its ruling that requires law enforcement officers to give prescribed warnings when conducting custodial interrogation. My last post (May 24, 2016), available here, discussed the custody issue involving traffic stops. Since then there have been three published North Carolina appellate cases on the custody issue in other contexts, which will be the focus of this post.
Cyberbullying Statute Struck Down
Last week, the state supreme court unanimously ruled that a provision of North Carolina’s cyberbullying statute, G.S. 14-458.1, “violates the First Amendment.” The case is State v. Bishop, and the opinion is here. I previously wrote here about the court of appeals ruling upholding the statute. This post summarizes the case and discusses the new opinion.
News Roundup
The case of a former Stanford University student, Brock Turner, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman at a party on the university’s campus is receiving national attention this week because Turner was sentenced to six months in county jail and three years of probation. The case is viewed by some as an example of a privileged white person receiving an unjustifiably lenient sentence for a serious crime. The Wall Street Journal has an overview article here. The Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge who sentenced Turner, Aaron Persky, has come under fire; an online petition calling for his recall has received nearly a million signatures. The victim’s statement to the court, largely directed at Turner, has become popular online and is available here. An editorial from the San Jose Mercury News arguing that Turner’s sentence was too light is available here. An opinion piece from the same paper, written prior to sentencing, arguing that a jail rather than a prison sentence would be appropriate is available here, and a similar piece from the National Association of Public Defenders is available here. Keep reading for more news.
Some FAQ about Probation Violation Appeals
Today’s post gives my best answers to a few frequently asked questions about appeals of probation violation hearings.
The Right to Life, Liberty, and Fifteen Additional Days to Renew Your Registration
Before I became a lawyer, I finished everything ahead of time. Term paper? Completed two weeks early. Trip? Packed a week in advance. Taxes? Filed in February. Alas, those days are nearly two decades behind me. Now I squeak in just under the wire with everything I do—including my weekly blog posts. I could proffer a host of reasons, but don’t think I need to so long as I meet the deadline. My modus operandi may explain why I was particularly troubled by the traffic stop in State v. Baskins, ___ N.C. App. ___ (May 17, 2016).
The Statutory Felony Disqualification for Self-Defense
I am working on a new edition of the self-defense book I wrote in 1996. As in the story of Rip Van Winkle, a lot has changed in twenty years. Most notably, the General Assembly adopted new statutes in 2011 on self-defense and related defenses. This blog post addresses one of those provisions, in G.S. 14-51.4, which disqualifies a person from relying on self-defense while committing, attempting to commit, or escaping from the commission of a felony. North Carolina appellate courts have not yet considered the meaning of this provision. Cf. State v. Rawlings, ___ N.C. App. ___, 762 S.E.2d 909 (2014) (felony disqualification did not apply to case in which defendant’s offense predated enactment of provision, and court expressed no opinion on proper construction of provision).