A UNC School of Government Blog
The top of the news today is that the Attorney General has removed and reassigned SBI director Robin Pendergraft and has at least temporarily stopped the work of “bloodstain pattern analysts” pending further review. The News and Observer has much more detail here. But even before this significant development, the week had been full of … Read more
I am sometimes asked if a conviction for which prayer for judgment has been continued (a PJC) can be expunged. It’s a sensible question, given—as I’ll discuss in a moment—that a PJC is treated like a conviction for most purposes in North Carolina. A person has virtually the same incentive to seek expungement of a … Read more
Rule of Professional Conduct 3.4(b) states that it is improper to “offer an inducement to a witness that is prohibited by law.” Comment 3 to the rule states that “[t]he common law rule in most jurisdictions is that it is improper to pay an occurrence witness any fee for testifying,” though “it is not improper … Read more
Some recent celebrity news has made me think about our extortion statute. The statute is G.S. 14-118.4, and it says: Any person who threatens or communicates a threat or threats to another with the intention thereby wrongfully to obtain anything of value or any acquittance, advantage, or immunity is guilty of extortion and such person … Read more
I’ve blogged previously about the Britt and Whitaker cases. Britt held that a particular convicted felon retained his right to bear arms under the state constitution, and that G.S. 14-415.1 — which purports to prohibit all felons from possessing firearms — was unconstitutional as applied to him. Whitaker rejected a similar claim made by another … Read more
Lots of interesting stuff this week. Without further ado: 1. The front page of the News and Observer today has a story that begins as follows: “Someone accused of killing a white person in North Carolina is nearly three times as likely to get the death penalty than someone accused of killing a black person, … Read more
The court of appeals in State v. Simmons, ___ N.C. App. ___ (July 20, 2010), decided this week, awarded a new trial to a defendant convicted of impaired driving, finding that the prosecutor made improper and prejudicial remarks in his closing argument. The court found a substantial likelihood that these comments led the jury to … Read more
According to the News and Observer, Governor Perdue has signed House Bill 80, entitled “An Act to Ban the Use of Electronic Machines and Devices for Sweepstakes Purposes.” It becomes effective December 1. I thought I’d take a few minutes to provide some background about the bill, summarize it, and identify some issues that I … Read more
In State v. Harbison, 315 N.C. 175 (1985), the North Carolina Supreme Court held that when defense counsel admits the defendant’s guilt to the jury without the defendant’s consent per se ineffective assistance of counsel occurs. The Harbison Court reasoned that when counsel admits guilt without consent, it is essentially the same as entering a … Read more
Two of the topics I write about the most are probation and sex offenders. Today’s post is about both, answering a question that—somewhat to my surprise—comes up pretty frequently: Can a defendant who entered an Alford plea to a sex crime have his or her probation revoked for failing to accept responsibility for the crime … Read more