Court of Appeals Holds that CDL Disqualification Bars DWI Prosecution
I’m not buying a lottery ticket this week. The court of appeals’ opinion in State v. McKenzie, published yesterday, casts serious doubt on my wagering skills. And if my wagers […]
Diminished Capacity
Diminished capacity is among the most commonly asserted defenses, particularly in first-degree murder cases, but I realized yesterday that I had never blogged about it. Today, I will remedy that. […]
Portion of Sex Offender Premises Restriction Held Unconstitutional
Happy New Year! I feel like I spent most of 2012 talking about Justice Reinvestment. Let’s start 2013 with a more agreeable subject—like sex offenders. In one of its final […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Terms of Office for Appointed Appellate Judges
[Editor’s note: Today we welcome Jim Drennan to the blog. Jim has been here at the School of Government for almost 40 years, though he took a couple of years […]
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 […]
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 […]
Requiring the Defendant to Pose for the Jury
Suppose in a robbery case that the State asks the defendant–who does not plan to testify–to stand in the courtroom wearing a mask allegedly worn by the robber. The defense […]