Recent Blog Posts Page 283 | North Carolina Criminal Law Blog

The front page of the News and Observer today reports that Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer May-Parker has been nominated by President Obama to serve as a federal district judge […]

Rule 45. This rule surprised me. Before I learned about it, I assumed that when a party sought to introduce hospital medical records at trial, a records custodian appeared in […]

I’ve been asked several times recently whether people who are not sworn law-enforcement officers may apply for search warrants. Somewhat to my surprise, the answer is yes. Statutory analysis. For […]

My last post discussed the applicability of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) to North Carolina’s jails. Today’s post looks at the substantive standards themselves. These are the standards with […]

I have been getting many questions lately about the applicability and impact of the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act, or PREA. Specifically, people want to know the extent to which […]

The Racial Justice Act is nearing repeal. Both chambers of the General Assembly have passed S 306, an omnibus capital punishment bill that does away with the Act. Governor McCrory […]

Forget all your legal training. Pretend you are a juror in a DWI case. Facts. The following facts were established at trial: The defendant was stopped at a checkpoint. The […]

When a defendant pleads guilty, the judge is required to “inform[] him of the maximum possible sentence” associated with his offense. G.S. 15A-1022(a)(6). When a defendant pleads guilty to being […]

Drug trafficking offenses can lead to really long sentences, and not just because of the special minimums and maximums that apply to those crimes. Consider this example: My husband and […]

My recent paper (here) on the use of remote testimony in criminal cases involving forensic analysts was written in part because of the flood of interest in legislative solutions to […]