News Roundup
Some of you aren’t getting email notifications of new posts. Sorry about that. Our IT folks are working to resolve the glitch, but it may take a little time. I’ll […]
Cocktail Party Review: The 2012 Legislative Session
Jamie’s post yesterday about the legislature’s amendments to the JRA was great, and absolutely essential for criminal lawyers. Shea’s recent post on the expansion of continuous alcohol monitoring was equally […]
Justice Reinvestment Clarifications Become Law
Like most complicated legislation, the Justice Reinvestment Act (JRA) was less than perfectly clear as originally written. Earlier this week (July 16, 2012) the governor signed House Bill 1021, Justice […]
Authorization for Continuous Alcohol Monitoring Expanded by S.L. 2012-146
Five years ago, the General Assembly authorized judges to require that defendants placed on probation for a Level One or Level Two impaired driving offense abstain from consuming alcohol for […]
Repressed Memory Evidence
In State v. King, the N.C. Supreme Court recently clarified the rules regarding the admissibility of repressed memory evidence. In King the defendant was charged with sexually assaulting his daughter, […]
News Roundup
Over the past several days, the national news has been dominated by the issuance of an investigative report about the Penn State child sexual abuse scandal, a topic I previously […]
G.S. 90-96 Probation
I wrote previously (here) about the post–Justice Reinvestment rules for determining whether a defendant is eligible for a conditional discharge under G.S. 90-96. Those rules are complicated, but my sense […]
Visual Estimates of Speed and “Slight Speeding”
The Fourth Circuit recently decided United States v. Sowards, an interesting case about a traffic stop. The case arose when an experienced traffic enforcement officer stopped the defendant on I-77 […]
Change in Punishment for Second-Degree Murder
Senate Bill 105, which passed both chambers of the General Assembly overwhelmingly and appears certain to become law (either with the Governor’s signature or because of the passage of time […]
Court OKs Measuring Combined Bags in Drug Cases
In State v. Huerta, the court of appeals recently reaffirmed its controlled substance “combination decisions.” Here’s what happened. Huerta was convicted of, among other things, trafficking by possession of more […]