News Roundup (October 26, 2012)
Jeff Welty
In Italy, six scientists have been convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison for failing to predict an earthquake. Seriously. In other news: The National Association of […]
Limited Driving Privileges Following Revocations for Willful Refusals (October 25, 2012)
Shea Denning
Several earlier posts (here, here and here) address the availability of a limited driving privilege for a person whose driver’s license is revoked upon conviction of impaired driving. Such a […]
FAQs on JRA (October 24, 2012)
Jamie Markham
Questions related to the Justice Reinvestment Act keep flooding in. Lots of them have been addressed elsewhere on this blog (see our Justice Reinvestment Resource Page for a collection of […]
Discharging a Firearm Into Occupied Property: If People Are on the Porch, It’s Occupied (October 23, 2012)
Jessica Smith
G.S. 14-34.1 makes it a Class E felony to discharge a barreled weapon or firearm into occupied property. The offense is elevated to a Class D felony if the property […]
Going to the Back Door (October 22, 2012)
Jeff Welty
The court of appeals just decided a case that’s important for officers, as well as lawyers and judges, to know about. The case is State v. Pasour, and it began […]
News Roundup (October 19, 2012)
Jeff Welty
In Durham, a man who shot at police during a traffic stop, and who was also served with warrants for first-degree sexual offense and other crimes, was given a total […]
Expert Testimony: “The Child Was Sexually Abused” (October 18, 2012)
Jessica Smith
Child sexual abuse cases raise a bevy of evidence issues. One recurring issue is this: Is it permissible for the State’s expert to testify that sexual abuse in fact occurred? […]
State v. Wilkerson and the Authentication of Electronic Evidence (October 17, 2012)
Shea Denning
I recently heard a police detective say that the internet was the worst thing that ever happened to law enforcement. He explained that before advent of the internet, criminals had […]
Curfews and Electronic Monitoring of Probationers (October 16, 2012)
Jamie Markham
Some probationers are subject to a curfew—a time each day (usually in the evening or at night) when they are restricted to their residence. Recent changes to the law have […]
When the Defendant Is an Animal (October 15, 2012)
Jeff Welty
As Jessie noted in a previous post, when a prosecutor is making his or her closing argument, “caution should be exercised with regard to all comparisons between the defendant and […]