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The fifth and final episode of the first season of Beyond the Bench is now available. The episode features Jamie Markham interviewing Anne Precythe, the Director of Community Corrections. She shares […]
Labor day weekend has arrived and it’s time to kick back, relax, and be incredibly safe while navigating the roadways of the Old North State. The Charlotte Observer reports that the number of U.S. and North Carolina traffic fatalities rose significantly in 2015, reversing a decades-long decline. Take Shea’s advice and don’t speed on your way to show off your new swimwear while lounging landward of the mean high-water mark of the State’s beaches. Planning to booze it in the Land of the Sky? Make safe transportation choices or you’ll lose it because law enforcement is cracking down on drunk driving over the holiday. Enjoy the long weekend and keep reading for more news.
A judge may remit unpaid fines and costs at any time. In certain circumstances.
True or False: An officer does not have to be qualified as an expert to testify about horizontal gaze nystagmus in a hearing on a motion to suppress in an impaired driving case.
About a year ago, I wrote about State v. Hembree, 368 N.C. 2 (2015), a case in which the state supreme court reversed a murder conviction based on the State’s excessive use of Rule 404(b) evidence. This month, a divided court of appeals decided a case in the same vein. The case is State v. Reed.
The ABA Journal reports that the U.S. Department of Justice has filed an amicus brief in a Georgia civil class action asserting that the use of money bail violates arrestees’ due process and equal protection rights when there is no meaningful consideration of their ability to pay and alternative methods of assuring their appearance at trial. The plaintiff in the case is a schizophrenic man who was arrested for public drunkenness and could not afford $160 in bail. Unable to make bail, the man was held for six days in the local jail. The challenged system differs from North Carolina’s pretrial release procedure which, in many cases, expresses a preference for unsecured or non-monetary conditions of pretrial release. Keep reading for more news.
The question I am most frequently asked these days is some version of the following:
May a law enforcement officer trained in administering the HGN test testify at trial about a defendant’s performance on the test if no other expert testifies about the relationship between nystagmus and impairment by alcohol?
While the answer obviously is either yes or no, there is more than one way to analyze the issue. Since today is Thursday, I’m going to throw it back to Bob Barker and the Price is Right and give you two showcases to consider.
Probation violations need not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. All that’s required is sufficient evidence to “reasonably satisfy” the judge that a violation occurred. What constitutes competent evidence of a probation violation? And how much proof is enough?
The United States Supreme Court has stated that the “physical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed” and that “searches and seizures inside a home without a warrant are presumptively unreasonable.” Payton v. United States, 445 U.S. 573, 585-86 (1980). So in an ordinary case officers will need an arrest warrant to enter a person’s house to make an arrest of the resident or a search warrant to search for and seize property there. There are a few exceptions to the warrant requirement: (1) obtaining consent to enter from an appropriate person, (2) probable cause and exigent circumstances, (3) making a protective sweep of a home for dangerous people when an officer is there to make an arrest, (4) entering a home to seize weapons for self-protection, and (5) entering a home to render emergency assistance to an injured occupant or to protect an occupant from imminent injury. See generally Arrest, Search, and Investigation in North Carolina (4th ed. 2011) at pages 66-73 (entering premises to arrest), 217-18 (probable cause and exigent circumstances), 232-33 (entry or search of home to render emergency assistance or for self-protection). A new edition of this book will be available this coming winter, possibly as soon as December 2016.
The penultimate episode of the inaugural season of Beyond the Bench is now available! The first half of the episode was produced by Shea, and explores the penalties associated with impaired […]