A UNC School of Government Blog
Yesterday, I taught a class on the use of Rule 404(b) evidence in sexual assault cases. During the class, we discussed the general rule against admitting the bare fact of a defendant’s prior conviction. As Jessie discussed here, the basic idea is that even when Rule 404(b) evidence is admissible, if the bad act at … Read more
Jeff previously blogged about multiple assault convictions based on the same conduct, distinguishing double jeopardy issues from statutory interpretation issues. In this post, I will hone in on the statutory interpretation aspect of the analysis. G.S. 14-32.4(b) provides: “Unless the conduct is covered under some other provision of law providing greater punishment, any person who … Read more
According to data from the Division of Community Corrections, 1270 probationers had their probation revoked in December 2010. Of those, 232 revocations were based on new crimes. I’ve written before about some of the issues associated with new criminal charges as a violation of probation, a post you can read here. To sum that post … Read more
The automatism defense is discussed briefly on page 14 of the current version of North Carolina Crimes. Because I’ve had a couple of questions about it, I thought I’d write about it in a little more detail. Automatism is the “absence of consciousness[, which] not only precludes the existence of any specific mental state, but … Read more
The hottest topic of the week — aside from the gripping Duke/UNC basketball game on Wednesday night — was certainly the hearing in Forsyth County about the constitutionality of the Racial Justice Act, G.S. 15A-2010 et seq. According to this News and Observer report, the state argued that the Act is “too sweeping to apply … Read more
In my first post on this topic, I set the stage for a discussion about the constitutionality of remote two-way testimony. In my second post, I explored the legal authority on that issue. In this final post, I will introduce two procedures might allow the State to achieve some of the benefits of remote testimony, … Read more
In my last post, I set the stage for a discussion about the constitutionality of remote two-way testimony. In this post I will explore the authority bearing on that question. Guidance from the United States Supreme Court The question whether remote two-way testimony satisfies the confrontation clause has not been resolved in a … Read more
Since the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004), interest has been growing in the use of remote testimony as a method to satisfy the confrontation clause. Crawford held that under the sixth amendment’s confrontation clause, testimonial statements by witnesses who do not appear at trial cannot be admitted … Read more
I’m preparing to teach a session during which I’ll cover the use of Rule 404(b) evidence in sexual assault cases. (As most readers of this blog know, Rule 404(b) evidence is evidence of bad acts by the defendant other than the charged offense; such evidence isn’t supposed to be used to show that the defendant … Read more
Several stories appeared this week that may be of interest: 1. The News and Observer ran this article, headlined “Lawyers Take on Net Predator Law,” about defense attorneys’ efforts to challenge G.S. 14-202.5. The statute makes it a felony for a sex offender to “access a commercial social networking Web site where the sex offender … Read more