A UNC School of Government Blog
A DWI conviction will cost you. Let’s take the case of a typical defendant who has never before been charged with or convicted of DWI. I’ll call him Forrest Firsttimer. Forrest is arrested at a DWI checkpoint. He submits to a breath test, which reports an alcohol concentration of 0.08. Forrest is taken before a … Read more
May community service fees be waived? I suspect some of you are thinking “I hope so, because they just were,” or something along those lines. It turns out to be a tricky question, I think. First, let me be clear about what I mean by community service. I’m talking about community service ordered as a … Read more
The Seventh Circuit just ruled that the $30 booking fee charged to each arrestee in an Illinois town is constitutional. Markadonatos v. Village of Woodridge, __ F.3d __, 2014 WL 60452 (7th Cir. Jan. 8, 2014). I had never heard of booking fees and decided to learn a bit more about them, including where they … Read more
Wondering what the key cases were in 2013? Here’s my list, for criminal lawyers practicing in state courts. Want more information? All of the cases are summarized in greater detail in my free, online Criminal Case Compendium. Evidence Kansas v. Cheever, 571 U.S. __ (Dec. 11, 2013). The Fifth Amendment does not prohibit the government … Read more
The new year is off to an interesting start. Here are some of the week’s top developments: Wake County DA not seeking re-election. Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby has announced that he will not seek re-election in November. The News and Observer reports that District Court Judge Ned Mangum is “contemplating a possible run … Read more
Deep in the statutory woods of the law allowing the seizure of motor vehicles driven by certain impaired drivers is a provision setting trial priority for the underlying criminal charges. G.S. 20-28.3(m) requires that district court trials of impaired driving offenses involving forfeiture of motor vehicles be scheduled on the arresting officer’s next court date … Read more
North Carolina has a law allowing certain prison inmates to be released early for medical reasons. It was passed in 2008, largely in response to concerns that a small number of aging inmates accounted for a sizeable percentage of the system’s medical budget. The law is similar in concept to compassionate release in the federal … Read more
The court of appeals decided a case today concerning a fact pattern that arises frequently in drug cases. State v. McKinney began when an officer received a “citizen complaint” about “heavy traffic in and out of” a particular apartment, with the visitors staying only a short time. The citizen stated that he or she had … Read more
While you were ringing in the new year with a traditional helping of black-eyed peas, some inmates were “enjoying” another day of nutraloaf. As this recent NPR story explains, “[i]n many prisons and jails . . . punishment can come in the form of a bland, brownish lump. Known as nutraloaf, or simply ‘the loaf,’ … Read more
This will be the last blog post of 2013, and in fact, the last one until January 6, 2014, as we will be on our annual holiday hiatus until then. It may be an interesting holiday season, considering that a district attorney in Pennsylvania has announced the arrest of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for FUI … Read more