A UNC School of Government Blog
Down with the law reviews, up with the blogs. Or, so says Justice Kennedy in this Wall Street Journal story. “Professors are back in the act with blogs,” he proclaims, stating that his clerks regularly survey the blogosphere to see how academics view the cases that are before the Court. I feel sure that they … Read more
With three words—PER CURIAM. AFFIRMED.—the Supreme Court of North Carolina last week added a new wrinkle to two already perplexing areas of the law: sex offender registration and PJCs. In Walters v. Cooper, the high court affirmed the court of appeals’ conclusion that a conviction for which a person receives a prayer for judgment continued … Read more
The court of appeals’ decision last January in State v. McKenzie was big news in the DWI world. The state’s intermediate appellate court held the one-year disqualification of a defendant’s commercial driver’s license (CDL) stemming from charges that he drove his personal vehicle while impaired amounted to criminal punishment. Thus, the court of appeals concluded, … Read more
They are gone. In a blog post here I wrote about 2012 North Carolina legislation imposing tight new timelines for judges handling post-conviction motions for appropriate relief. When I had to tell the judges about those new rules at last year’s judges’ conference, I was tempted to bring a riot shield. Folks were upset about … Read more
Each year on the first Monday in October, the Supreme Court begins a new term. Today’s the first Monday in October 2013, so in this post, I’ll summarize several of the criminal cases that the Court will hear during the term that has just begun. This will be a selective preview rather than a comprehensive … Read more
No, the federal government shutdown hasn’t reached the School of Government — I’m just a little slow with my post today due to some teaching and other obligations. Easily the most unusual story of the week was this one from San Diego, California: a defendant was convicted of murder and sentenced to 53 years in … Read more
In 2013 North Carolina enacted “Caylee’s Law,” S.L. 2013-52, a statute similar to laws adopted in other states after the high-profile Casey Anthony trial. North Carolina’s law makes a number of changes regarding the reporting of missing, abused or deceased children. This post summarizes the changes, all of which are effective for offenses occurring on … Read more
DWI law scholars, answer the following question. Are the results of all breath tests that were administered to the defendant admissible in an implied consent case? Yes, if the results from any two consecutively collected breath samples do not differ from each other by more than 0.02. No, only the two consecutively collected breath samples … Read more
It’s October 1 and a lot of new laws come into effect today. Among them is the portion of S.L. 2013-101 that amended the felony sentencing grid. The revised grid, effective for offenses committed on or after October 1, is available on the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission website. All of the old … Read more
A new edition of the State of North Carolina Extradition Manual is now available. Although international extradition gets all the media attention — and is the subject of this blog post — state-to-state extradition is vastly more common. Particularly in border counties, it is an everyday procedure. The manual provides an overview of the process and … Read more