Announcing Our New Podcast: Beyond the Bench
On behalf of the North Carolina Judicial College and the School of Government, I’m pleased to announce the launch of a new podcast about the court system. It’s called Beyond […]
News Roundup
Two officer-involved fatal shootings are making national headlines this week, in part because video of each shooting has been published on the internet. On Tuesday, Alton Sterling was shot and […]
New Probation Condition for Felons: Mandatory Waiver of Extradition
In Session Law 2016-77, the General Assembly made some changes the law of probation, post-release supervision, and parole. Though styled as “an act to amend provisions of the Justice Reinvestment […]
Utah v. Strieff and the Attenuation Doctrine
(Author’s note: The concluding paragraph of this post was amended after its publication to include the number of outstanding warrants and orders for arrest on July 1, 2016.) Every year, […]
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 […]