Ineffective Assistance in Plea Bargaining?
On Halloween, I was dressed up as a sheep, trick or treating with my daughter, Little Bo Peep. Fortunately, serious legal business was being conducted elsewhere: the Supreme Court heard […]
“Initial County Registration” for Sex Offender Registry Purposes
Under G.S. 14-208.12A, a sex offender can petition the superior court for removal from the sex offender registry “[t]en years from the date of initial county registration.” Many times I […]
State v. Pierce: Malice and Foreseeability in Death by Vehicle Prosecutions
The court of appeals’ recent decision in State v. Pierce, __ N.C. App. __ (October 18, 2011), analyzed whether a defendant could properly be convicted of second degree murder for […]
News Roundup
I’m traveling today with only an iPad and inconsistent Wifi for Internet access, so pardon the short post and untidy formatting in what has been a VERY interesting news week. 1. […]
Medical Providers’ Duty to Report Injuries to Law Enforcement
Jill Moore, one of my colleagues who works in the area of public health law, recently posted on the School of Government’s local government law blog about health care providers’ […]
Are Ticket or Arrest Quotas Lawful?
I’ve recently been asked by several people whether it is lawful to require officers to issue a certain number of citations, or to make a certain number of arrests, per […]
Confinement in Response to Violations (CRV) and Limits on Probation Revocation Authority
When analysts from the Council of State Governments studied North Carolina’s sentencing laws and correctional system, one of their key findings was that revoked probationers account for a lot of […]
Unauthorized Vehicles Will be Towed at Owners’ Expense
Police officers, city and county attorneys, private citizens and others frequently inquire about the circumstances under which the owner of private property may arrange for a vehicle parked on that […]
News Roundup
Regular readers may have noticed that I fell down on the job and didn’t get a post up on Wednesday. Sorry about that! It’s been a busy week with the […]
Jessie’s Top Five Indictment Errors
An indictment defect is a boon for the defense and a disaster for the prosecution. Simply put an indictment is defective when it fails to allege an essential element of […]