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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Going Armed to the Terror of the People
After I eliminated this offense from the 7th edition of North Carolina Crimes, a few people asked me to add it back in. A statistics report from the N.C. Administrative […]
The Government in Your Dashboard
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) thinks states ought to require ignition interlock as a condition of driving for anyone convicted of DWI, including first-time offenders. So does the U.S. […]