You Can Hold Me Down: Restraining the Defendant During Trial
In Stone Free, Jimi Hendix sang: “You can’t hold me down.” Perhaps it’s no surprise but criminal procedure doesn’t conform to Hendrix’s lyrics. As illustrated by the recent case State […]
Per se impairment, reasonable doubt, margins of error, and all that lies between
G.S. 20-138.1(a)(2) prohibits a person from driving a vehicle upon a highway, street or public vehicular area after having consumed sufficient alcohol that the person has, at any relevant time […]
Guns in Parks
I’ve had a huge number of calls about one particular aspect of S.L. 2011-268, the omnibus gun rights bill enacted during the recently completed legislative session. The provision in question […]
News Roundup
The national media has been buzzing all week about the execution of Troy Davis in Georgia. Davis was convicted of killing off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail. I haven’t followed the […]
Advanced Supervised Release
The Justice Reinvestment Act (S.L. 2011-192) creates a new program called Advanced Supervised Release (ASR). Through it, certain inmates will be eligible for release from prison before serving their minimum […]
Eating the Evidence
Eating the evidence might yield a stomach ache but it won’t ensure an acquittal. That is the lesson learned from State v. James, a case recently decided by the N.C. […]
Jury Sequestration
These days, it seems as though there’s a trial of the century every week or two. Media coverage of court proceedings has never been more intense, even with Nancy Grace […]
The Link Between License Revocations and Failures to Appear
In 1985, the General Assembly reclassified certain minor traffic violations as a new type of non-criminal violation, termed an infraction. S.L. 1985-764. Though the legislation provided that infractions were to […]
News Roundup
According to a recent AP poll, discussed here, only 8% of Americans said that they felt very confident about the “people who are running” blogs, while 47% lacked confidence in […]
Willfulness of Probation Violations
It has long been the rule in North Carolina that all that is required for a judge to revoke probation is a finding that the defendant has violated a valid […]