A UNC School of Government Blog
Suppose that Dan shoots Victor on January 1, and that Victor dies from his wounds, but not until January 3. When a magistrate issues an arrest warrant, or the grand jury returns an indictment, should the date of offense be listed as January 1, the date of the attack? Or January 3, the date of … Read more
I’ve been busy with New Prosecutors’ School this week. As always, it has been humbling and inspiring. But the world didn’t stop turning. Here are some of the week’s top stories: The General Assembly takes on juvenile law. The News and Observer reports here that the legislature is considering a bill that would require judges … Read more
I recently completed a draft of a bulletin on probation violations. It is working its way through our internal review process. In the meantime, I thought I would post it on the blog and open it up for wider comment. There have been many changes in this area of the law in the past 5 … Read more
I recently published a lengthy paper here examining the constitutionality of remote testimony in criminal trials under Crawford and the confrontation clause. In that paper I noted that the North Carolina Court of Appeals has held that Maryland v. Craig procedures for child victims survive Crawford. Maryland v. Craig was a pre-Crawford United States Supreme … Read more
Suppose a police officer patrolling a city street lawfully pulls over a car with out-of-state tags. When the officer asks the driver for his driver’s license, the driver tells the officer: I had a Maryland driver’s license, but it was revoked. May the law enforcement officer properly charge the defendant with driving while license revoked … Read more
Who proves prior convictions for sentencing purposes? By statute, the State. Sometimes, however, in the fast-paced world of district court, marshaling a defendant’s criminal record can seem like a shared responsibility, with the prosecutor, judge, and clerk all playing a role. Especially today, when more statewide information is available at a mouse click through CJLEADS … Read more
There’s been way more than the usual amount of interesting criminal law news this week, so let’s dive right in: The General Assembly has been busy. The Senate passed a bill that would, among other things, repeal the Racial Justice Act; it now moves to the House. Meanwhile, the House passed a bill that the … Read more
I’ve previously discussed the forfeiture by wrongdoing exception to the confrontation clause in this blog (here) and in numerous other publications (for example, here). In a nutshell, the forfeiture by wrongdoing exception extinguishes confrontation claims on the equitable grounds that a person should not be able to benefit from his or her wrongdoing. Forfeiture by … Read more
Two prosecutors in Kaufman County, Texas, have been killed in the past two months. A deputy district attorney was murdered two months ago. Two days ago, the elected district attorney was killed, along with his wife. The New York Times has the story here. It’s not completely clear that the two murders were related, though … Read more
Vehicle crashes are an obvious risk of impaired driving. Thus, it is not unusual for impaired driving prosecutions to follow post-crash investigations, which typically include questioning of the suspected driver. When the State prosecutes impaired driving cases that follow certain types of crashes—namely single car crashes to which there are no witnesses other than the … Read more