A UNC School of Government Blog
I can’t stop writing about Fayetteville! The city council’s 120-day moratorium on consent searches by the police during traffic stops came under fire this week from several angles. First, the Attorney General’s office issued an advisory letter concluding, in essence, that a municipal government can’t take away a power granted by a state statute — … Read more
In this prior post, I wrote about how Justice Reinvestment changed the rules for determining where a person serves his or her sentence. Today’s post takes a closer look at the proper place of confinement for misdemeanor inmates with sentences of 91 to 180 days, the Statewide Misdemeanant Confinement Program (MCP). The basic idea of … Read more
Under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), before an officer may begin a custodial interrogation of a suspect, the officer must advise the suspect of certain rights, such as the right to remain silent. One might think that when an officer questions a jail or prison inmate, the setting is necessarily custodial. The case … Read more
The court of appeals recently decided Kenton v. Kenton, a civil case of major significance for criminal lawyers. In a nutshell, a wife sought a domestic violence protective order (DVPO) against her husband. A district court judge entered a consent DVPO, finding that “[t]he parties agree to entry of this order without express findings of … Read more
“It’s the economy, stupid,” was a catch phrase in Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 presidential campaign. I have my own catch phrase, but it’s for trying drug cases. Here it is: “It’s testimonial, stupid.” Nearly everyone is having a difficult adjustment to the new confrontation clause regime after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Crawford decision and its … Read more
There’s been a lot going on this week. The first evidentiary hearing under the Racial Justice Act has come to an end. The Fayetteville Observer reports on the parties’ closing arguments here. Both sides are expected to file additional briefs, and a decision is unlikely for several weeks. The national media is interested in the … Read more
The Supreme Court of North Carolina recently decided State v. Mbacke, an important case about searches incident to arrest. I mentioned Mbacke briefly in this prior post, which noted that the court of appeals’ decision in the case was impossible to reconcile with the same court’s decision in the similar case of State v. Foy. … Read more
The lead story in the January 30, 2012 issue of North Carolina Lawyer’s Weekly was headlined “Necessary’s Restraint: The night police officer Richard Necessary sat on a drunk-driving suspect in order to get a blood sample might prove to be the night when courts realized enough is enough.” The newspaper reported that a superior court … Read more
Our appellate courts spend a lot of time writing about restitution. Consequently, so do I. Prior posts discuss some of the thornier restitution issues that come up from time to time. There’s this one on restitution for drug-buy money; this one on restitution to victims of unconvicted conduct; this one on restitution to government agencies; … Read more
The N.C. Court of Appeals’ recent decision in State v. Harrison raises an issue that arises with some frequency in N.C. criminal trials: When can the State use evidence of a defendant’s pre- and post-arrest silence at trial? In this post I’ll address that issue. In Harrison, the defendant was convicted of larceny of a … Read more