Draft Bulletin on Probation Violations
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 […]
N.C. Court of Appeals OKs Remote Two-Way Testimony for Ill Witnesses
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 […]
DWLR and Out-of-State Revocations
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 […]
Who Proves Prior Record?
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 […]
News Roundup
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 […]
Fourth Circuit Declines to Take a Restrictive View of Forfeiture by Wrongdoing
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 […]
Is Being a Lawyer a Dangerous Job?
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 […]
Corpus Delicti and DWI
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. […]
News Roundup
Since tomorrow’s a holiday for many, including me, this week’s news roundup comes a day early. The lead story is the apparent crumbling of the video sweepstakes industry. Major software […]
Claims That Survive an Unconditional Guilty Plea
A lot of defendants plead guilty. And many of those defendants later try to challenge their pleas through the post-conviction process. Not surprisingly then, I get a lot of questions […]