A UNC School of Government Blog
North Carolina’s structured sentencing grid did not change from 1995 to 2009. Since then it has changed twice, once for offenses committed on or after December 1, 2009 (discussed here), and again (under the Justice Reinvestment Act) for offenses committed on or after December 1, 2011. With that recent history in mind, an important first … Read more
In the recent Court of Appeals case, State v. Mason, the trial court erred by sending exhibits to the jury deliberation room over defense counsel’s objection. Although the State got lucky in that the error turned out not to be prejudicial, the decision signals that it’s a good time for a review of the relevant … Read more
The story generating the most interest this week is, in the words of the News and Observer, that “[a] two-year investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice has found that [Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson] and his deputies routinely discriminated against Latinos by making unwarranted arrests with the intent of maximizing deportations.” Among other conclusions, … Read more
At the Oklahoma City bombing trial of Timothy McVeigh jurors’ names were kept private. So, too, in the corruption trials of former governors Edwin Edwards of Louisiana and Rod Blagojevich of Illinois. Likewise in the recent Chicago trial for the murder of Jennifer Hudson’s mother and other family members. And last year Maryland’s courts adopted … Read more
Rule 403 provides that “[a]lthough relevant, evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice . . . needless presentation of cumulative evidence,” or other factors. There’s considerable case law about the application of Rule 403 to photographs of homicide victims. A recent case from the Third … Read more
Last July, former Wake County district court judge Kristin Ruth pled guilty to willfully failing to discharge the duties of her office, a misdemeanor offense, for her role in signing ex parte orders prepared by a defense attorney that, among other things, ordered that certain conviction dates in DWI cases be entered “nunc pro tunc” … Read more
A frequently asked question of late is whether a judge may still impose special probation (a split sentence) in a probation case. Apparently the question arises out of a sense that the new forms of confinement created by the Justice Reinvestment Act—short term confinement for 2–3 days (“quick dips”) and confinement in response to violation … Read more
There have been several sad and frightening stories in the news recently, from the apparent murder of UNC undergraduate Faith Hedgepeth, to the ice cream truck operator charged with being a sexual predator, but the one that may have struck the deepest nerve is the fatal shooting of Kathy Bertrand by her ex-husband in Raleigh. … Read more
A couple of recent news stories led me to think about the possibility of a particular type of class disparity in the criminal justice system. Here are the two stories: Two big-time UNC fundraisers have resigned. The two were dating. They went on several trips together, at university expense, to locations where one of the … Read more