News Roundup

New Governor Pat McCrory may be more focused on economic policy than on the courts and criminal justice, but he’s still done several things in his first days in office that might interest readers, like rescinding Governor Perdue’s executive order creating a judicial nominating commission; naming former legislator – and former probation officer – David … Read more

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Jury View

In a post here I discussed a view of the person. In this post I’ll address the more common issue of a jury view. A trial judge may allow a jury view. G.S. 15A-1229(a). Typically it is of a crime scene but it can involve viewing large evidence that cannot be presented in the courtroom, … Read more

The Supreme Court on Competency and Collateral Review

Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court decided an important competency case. Let’s start the discussion with a quiz. Which of the following statements is true? a. A trial may be conducted even when a capital defendant is incompetent. b. Federal habeas proceedings may continue even when a petitioner/former capital defendant is incompetent. c. An execution … Read more

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A Horse Is a Horse, of Course. But Is It Also a Vehicle?

Horses are vehicles, according to our state court of appeals. In State v. Dellinger, 73 N.C. App. 685 (1985), the court upheld the defendant’s conviction for impaired driving based upon his riding of a horse on a street with an alcohol concentration of 0.18. The court reasoned:  G.S. 20-171 renders traffic laws applicable to persons … Read more

News Roundup

The New Year is off and running. Yesterday was the day the mandate issued on the Hest Technologies video sweepstakes case, which I previously summarized here. That means that law enforcement could begin charging those in violation of the law – but many sweepstakes operators have changed their software in an attempt to comply with … Read more

New Year’s Resolutions

Still trying to decide what you should commit to doing in the new year? Regular programming returns tomorrow, but for today, I thought that I would suggest some possible criminal-law-related resolutions: 1. Read Jamie’s book. Jamie’s book on the Justice Reinvestment Act is available for purchase here, but many readers — judges, prosecutors, public defenders, … Read more

Holiday Break

I’m off tomorrow, as are most of my co-bloggers, so there won’t be a post then. This marks the beginning of the blog’s annual winter break. We’ll be back on Wednesday, January 2, 2013. Thank you for contributing to the blog this year, whether by reading, commenting, suggesting topics for posts, or all of the … Read more