Refusal to Deliberate
I was asked recently whether a juror can be removed for refusing to deliberate. The case in which the issue arose has concluded, a federal circuit court just weighed in […]
Brown v. Plata and Prison Population Controls
On Monday the Supreme Court issued its decision in Brown v. Plata, holding that systemic failures to provide adequate medical and mental health care in the California prison system can […]
False Names and Identity Theft
[Editor’s note: Regular readers will notice two changes to the blog today. One, for the first time, my posts have a byline. Two, a photograph of the author now appears […]
Admissibility of Electronic Writings: Emails, Text Messages, and Social Networking Posts
It is conference season again at the School of Government, which means that we are doing a lot of presentations for a lot of different groups in the court system. […]
News Roundup
The big news nationally this week was the New York arrest and indictment of Dominique Strauss-Kahn on charges that he sexually assaulted a maid at a Manhattan hotel. Prior to […]
Proving the Per Se Prong of Impaired Driving without a Chemical Analysis
The usual way for the State to establish that a person drove while impaired under the per se prong of G.S. 20-138.1 is to introduce the results of a chemical […]
Do Multi-Unit Dwellings Have Curtilage?
The curtilage of a home is the area “directly and intimately connected with the [home] and in proximity” to it. State v. Courtright, 60 N.C. App. 247 (1983). In other […]
Kentucky v. King and the Officer-Created Exigency Doctrine
Yesterday, the Supreme Court decided Kentucky v. King, a case that addresses — actually, eviscerates — the officer-created exigency doctrine. The facts are as follows: Officers investigating possible drug crimes […]
Sexual Assaults: One Conviction or Two?
One recurring question I get asked is this: If the Defendant engages in two sex acts in one continuous transaction, how many assaults have occurred? When the acts are vaginal […]
News Roundup
The weather forecast calls for a rainy weekend: a good time to sit around, listening to some music. Preferably Bob Dylan, since he is apparently the musician most often cited […]