News Roundup
A big case was argued this week before the United States Supreme Court. You’ve probably been following it, right?
Weapons Probationers Can’t Have
Probationers generally cannot have guns. What other weapons can they not have?
Do Implied Consent Procedures Apply to the Withdrawal of Blood Pursuant to a Search Warrant?
In most DWI cases, the State obtains evidence of a defendant’s alcohol concentration from a breath-testing machine. In order for the results of such a breath test to be admissible […]
Book on Digital Evidence Now Available
I’m happy to announce that my book on digital evidence is now available. There are five chapters, covering (1) search warrants for digital devices, (2) warrantless searches of digital devices, (3) […]
Can the Person Protected by a DVPO Be Charged with Violating the Order?
Here’s a question I get occasionally: What language should I use to charge aiding and abetting a violation of a domestic violence protective order (DVPO)? Here’s a similar one: If […]
News Roundup
Durham native Loretta Lynch was confirmed yesterday as the nation’s first female African-American Attorney General. I believe that she is only the second female Attorney General, after Janet Reno. WRAL […]
Nystagmus in the Courts
Jurisprudence over whether officers may testify about defendants’ horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN) in impaired driving trials has failed to follow a smooth path. In fact, one could fairly note that […]
Supreme Court Rejects “De Minimis” Extension of a Traffic Stop to Deploy a Drug Dog
Yesterday, the Supreme Court decided Rodriguez v. United States, an important traffic stop case that changes North Carolina law as it pertains to certain drug dog sniffs, and perhaps other […]
DAC’s Auditing Authority
Many of you have received one of those letters: a notice from the N.C. Department of Public Safety, Division of Adult Correction (DAC), Section of Combined Records, seeking “clarification” of […]
Hair Analysis Under a Microscope
Over the weekend, the Washington Post ran a story that begins as follows: The Justice Department and FBI have formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic […]