A Happy DMV Customer
Yesterday I had the most fantastic experience: I renewed my driver’s license in a matter of minutes. I didn’t have to take a sign test. I didn’t have to leave […]
What’s In a (Trade) Name?
Today, the court of appeals reversed a defendant’s drug convictions because the indictments identified the controlled substances in question using terms that are widely used to describe the drugs, but […]
U.S. Supreme Court Rules that Child’s Statements to Teachers Are Non-Testimonial
On June 18th the U.S. Supreme Court decided Ohio v. Clark, 576 U.S. __, 135 S. Ct. 2173 (2015), holding that a child abuse victim’s statements to his preschool teachers […]
News Roundup
The highly publicized escape of two murderers from a New York prison came to an end this week as Richard Matt was shot and killed and David Sweat was shot […]
Proper Procedure for Aggravating Factors
Not many sentences come from the aggravated range—four percent in Fiscal Year 2013/14, according to the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission. But when you use the aggravated range, […]
It’s Time to Register Your Moped
Beginning tomorrow, mopeds must be registered with the Division of Motor Vehicles to be lawfully operated on the state’s roadways. This post addresses several questions that have arisen regarding this […]
The North Carolina Criminal Self-Dealing Statute: Five Things You Should Know
My colleague Frayda Bluestein recently wrote a post with the above title on the School of Government’s local government blog. Her post begins as follows: In North Carolina, it is a […]
News Roundup
There were several major criminal law stories this week, none of them especially cheery. Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had his sentencing hearing. The result was not in doubt, as […]
State v. Elder: DVPO Cannot Authorize Search for Guns
A judge who issues an emergency or ex parte domestic violence protective order must order the defendant to surrender all firearms in his care, custody or control if the judge […]
The Death Penalty, Intellectual Disability, and Warrick Dunn
The United States Supreme Court just decided a capital case about intellectual disability, formerly known as mental retardation. In some ways, it’s an “error correction” case that doesn’t break new […]