I recently completed a series of posts on issues surrounding confidential informants (“CI’s”), discovery, and motions to reveal the CI’s identity. In this “bonus” post, I will discuss a related […]
This post summarizes the published criminal opinions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on January 15, 2025. These summaries will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a […]
This post summarizes published criminal law cases released by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals during December 2024. Cases of potential interest to state practitioners are summarized monthly. Previous summaries […]
This morning, President Biden announced that he will commute the sentences of nearly 2,500 inmates serving long prison terms for nonviolent drug offenses. The commutations are for offenders who received […]
In September 2023, then-Governor Roy Cooper appointed Allison Riggs to fill a vacancy on the North Carolina Supreme Court created by the retirement of Associate Justice Michael Morgan. As an […]
With a teaser like that, who could resist reading more? The 2025 edition of my online guide to expunctions is now available on the School of Government’s website at https://www.sog.unc.edu/resources/microsites/relief-criminal-conviction/. […]
North Carolina is a bilateral conspiracy jurisdiction. Defining conspiracy as a combination of two or more persons to do an unlawful thing means that if the only other participant is […]
I am pleased to announce that the updated chapters in the Criminal Series of the Clerks’ Manual are now available.
In the waning weeks of his four-year term, President Biden announced commutations of 37 of 40 federal death sentences. With the exception of three individuals convicted of crimes involving “terrorism” […]
Law enforcement has authority to seize a person’s motor vehicle in several circumstances. Motor vehicles may be seized as evidence of a crime or for containing evidence of a crime, […]