Waiving the Assistance of Counsel in District Court Cases
Suppose that when a criminal defendant appears in court, he is advised of the right to have counsel appointed if indigent, tells the judge he wants to hire his own […]
News Roundup
With experts predicting that this Fourth of July weekend will be one of the busiest travel weekends in history, the News Roundup has tips for staying safe and obeying the […]
Running a Sentence Consecutively to an Anticipated Sentence
May the judge sentencing a conviction now order that it run consecutively to sentences the defendant might get in the future?
Breath Tests Incident to Arrest are Reasonable but Prosecution for Refusing a Blood Test Goes Too Far
The U.S. Supreme Court waded into the murky waters of implied consent law this term in Birchfield v. North Dakota. The opinion it issued last week clarified important aspects of […]
The Statutory “Four Corners” Rule When Determining Probable Cause for a Search Warrant
G.S. 15A-245 provides that information other than that contained in a search warrant affidavit may not be considered by the issuing official in determining whether probable cause exists to issue […]
One Case, Two Ways of Authenticating Video
Technologists tell us that we are in the age of ubiquitous video. It seems that almost everything is being recorded. Naturally, this means that more and more video recordings are […]
News Roundup
Last week the North Carolina Department of Public Safety announced the creation of a new Youthful Offender Program and the elimination of the use of solitary confinement for offenders under […]
Revised Sex Offender Flow Chart (June 2016 Edition)
Today’s post is an update to the sex offender registration and monitoring flow chart. (It’s really more of a cheat sheet than a flow chart, but after seven years of […]
Amendments to Notice and Demand Provisions for DWI Cases
No legislative session would be complete without amendments to the state’s DWI laws. The 2016 short session upholds this tradition by amending the procedures that govern the admissibility of chemical analyses […]
A Jury of One’s Peers
Summer is here and everyone is feeling excited about fair cross-section claims. Or at least I am after hearing an enlightening presentation about them, described below.