Recent blog posts - 302 of 398

Three more inmates had their death sentences vacated this week under the Racial Justice Act. Cumberland County Superior Court Judge Greg Weeks, following the reasoning he used previously to void […]

As I traveled around the state teaching about the Justice Reinvestment Act, I had lots of discussions about the various types of confinement that can now be ordered in response […]

The murder rate in North Carolina is falling. The same is true nationally. A recent article suggests that shootings are actually up, but deaths are down due to medical advances. […]

Is the parking lot of a private social club a public vehicular area for purposes of North Carolina’s impaired driving laws? Yes, in most circumstances, it is. Public vehicular areas […]

The recent case, State v. Ryan, presents an issue that keeps our appellate courts busy: the proper scope of expert testimony in child sexual abuse cases. In Ryan, after the […]

Hot sauce, simulated sex, and echoes of the notorious Abu Ghraib prison are allegedly involved in one of this week’s most disturbing stories. Yahoo! News reports here that six inmates […]

“Only an idiot drives on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus.” So read a sign that an Ohio judge ordered a woman to wear after being convicted for the […]

May a man be held criminally responsible for the contents of his girlfriend’s purse? Yes, on the facts of State v. Mitchell, the court of appeals ruled yesterday. In Mitchell, […]

This Gallup survey reports that Americans view lawyers negatively. Perhaps the survey respondents should get to know Chris Beechler, a criminal defense attorney from Winston-Salem. This Winston-Salem Journal article describes […]

In a paper here I analyze Williams v. Illinois, the U.S. Supreme Court’s latest confrontation decision on substitute analyst testimony. Because Williams was a fractured opinion in which no rationale […]