George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Florida, recently shot and killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old who was walking through Zimmerman’s neighborhood. Martin was returning from a […]
In a post here discussing application of post-release supervision periods to multiple sentences Jamie raised the question of whether over-advising a defendant as to the maximum possible sentence associated with […]
The Supreme Court decided two cases last week about ineffective assistance of counsel during plea bargaining. The cases, Lafler v. Cooper and Missouri v. Frye, made a big splash in […]
The biggest legal news of the week may be the Supreme Court’s recognition of a right to the effective assistance of counsel during plea bargaining in Lafler v. Cooper and […]
Jeff wrote here about State v. Fields, ___ N.C. App. ___ (March 6, 2012), a case in which the officer’s observation of the defendant’s vehicle as moving within its lane […]
Jessie Smith has completely revised and updated the indispensable reference work North Carolina Crimes. The seventh edition is now available for purchase from the School of Government. The book has […]
In my experience, the mere mention of the terms “res judicata” and “collateral estoppel” in the classroom setting operates like a blast of intellectual air conditioning, causing mental processes to […]
According to the Division of Adult Correction’s (DAC) website, there are about 38,900 people in prison in North Carolina today. That number actually overstates the real population slightly, because it […]
There must be some sort of planetary alignment taking place today: Duke, UNC, and NC State all play in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, the new iPad goes on sale, […]
Yesterday, I wrote about a pair of recent cases about weaving within a lane of travel. Today, I want to mention another pair of recent cases related to automobiles. Last […]