In Grady v. North Carolina, 575 U.S. __, 135 S. Ct. 1368 (2015), the Supreme Court concluded that North Carolina’s satellite-based monitoring (SBM) program for sex offenders is a search. The Court left to the lower courts the question of whether the search is “unreasonable” under the Fourth Amendment. The lower courts have started to answer it.
The Results Are In: Trial Judges’ Views of IDS
In 2015, the Office of Indigent Defense Services (IDS) asked the School of Government to conduct an online survey of how superior and district court judges view IDS’s administration of indigent defense in North Carolina. Last week, the School issued its report of the survey results, Trial Judges’ Perceptions of North Carolina’s Office of Indigent Defense Services: A Report on Survey Results (March 2016) (referred to below as the Report). The verdict? Judges have a positive view of IDS’s performance, overall and in several key areas, but the results include a few warning signs for indigent defense.
Is It a Crime for a Transgendered Person to Use the “Wrong” Bathroom?
The General Assembly recently passed, and the Governor recently signed, HB 2 (S.L. 2016-3), popularly known as “the bathroom bill.” This post considers whether it is now a crime for a transgendered person to use the bathroom of the sex with which he or she identifies.
News Roundup
Local and national reaction to the General Assembly’s approval in a one-day special session last week of House Bill 2, the “Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act,” is dominating the news. The Charlotte Observer’s initial report about the bill being signed into law is available here. Over on the SOG Coates’ Canons blog, Trey Allen has a thorough overview of the new law and Norma Houston takes a look at its impact on city and county contracts. In connection with the Charlotte controversy, Jeff considered the criminal implications of restroom usage by the opposite sex in this post from last year.
Proponents have argued that the new law is intended to protect public safety, but critics say it is discriminatory. The News and Observer reports that Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Roy Cooper has announced that his office will not defend the law which has already been challenged in federal court. In response, Governor Pat McCrory released a video criticizing Cooper’s decision, and N.C. Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger called for Cooper to resign. Keep reading for more news.
Storycorps: DWI Edition
On Fridays, National Public Radio features recordings from its Storycorps booth. These recordings sometimes feature a teacher and student, a parent and child, spouses, or a single person discussing a life-changing experience. They are always thought-provoking, and often are heart-wrenching.
I’m not looking to steal Storycorps’ thunder nor aiming to make anyone cry (a common Storycorps side effect), but I am interested in creating a broadcast for the School of Government that relates to impaired driving. I want to start by hearing from people who have been convicted of misdemeanor impaired driving. I want to know whether and how that experience altered the course of their lives–for the better or for the worse.
Weighing Aggravating and Mitigating Factors
Much has been written—and much of it by the Supreme Court—on the proper way to find aggravating factors for sentencing. After Apprendi v. New Jersey, Blakely v. Washington, and countless cases at the state level, it is of course clear that a defendant has a Sixth Amendment right to have aggravating factors proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Once sentencing factors are properly found, however, responsibility shifts back to the judge to decide what to do about them. The rules for weighing factors are as loosey-goosey as the rules for finding them are rigid.
Book Review: Just Mercy
A few years ago, I attend the Judicial Conference of the Fourth Circuit, where I heard Bryan Stevenson speak. The address was captivating. Stevenson spoke of representing the wrongly accused and the wrongly convicted. He told of advocating for juveniles who were incarcerated with adults and who were sexually abused as a result. He urged the audience to get a little closer to the criminal justice system, and to look a little more carefully at it. Now Stevenson has written a book, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. Among many other awards, it was named a best book of the year by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Time magazine. I thought it was good, but not great.
News Roundup
The SOG is closed for a holiday tomorrow, so the News Roundup is coming to you a day early. This week’s top news story is the bombing of the airport and a metro station in Brussels. USA Today has full coverage of the attack here. Three explosions were reported and at least 34 people were confirmed dead in the attack at the time of writing. According to USA Today, the Islamic State has taken credit for the attack and Belgium’s federal prosecutor confirmed that the bombings were the work of terrorists. WRAL has a story about a local man who was in Brussels Airport and survived the bombing. Keep reading for more news.
State v. Miller Confirms that the DWI Motions Statutes are a Hot Mess
No, Justice Ervin didn’t use the words hot mess. But anyone who slogs their way through the tortured procedural swamp that led to State v. Miller, __ N.C. __ (March 18, 2016), is bound to agree that the procedures adopted in 2006 for appeals in DWI cases have created a nearly impenetrable bog for the parties involved. I’m going to do my best here to succinctly explain what happened in Miller. Then I’ll share an idea for freeing litigants and judges from the procedural muck in which they are currently mired.