Reckless Driving
Reckless driving is among the most commonly charged, and most broadly defined, motor vehicle offenses. Three types of reckless driving, all Class 2 misdemeanors, are defined in G.S. 20-140. First, […]
Ruse Checkpoints
I wrote a paper about motor vehicle checkpoints last year. It’s available here. Once in a while, I get asked about so-called ruse checkpoints, a subject that I didn’t address […]
Probation Tolling Repealed
I’ve mentioned the big legislative changes pending in HB 642 (the Justice Reinvestment Act, which was discussed in House Appropriations this morning), but I haven’t written about an important criminal […]
News Roundup
The News and Observer reports that the government may seek an indictment against former Senator John Edwards as soon as next week. The case is expected to center around money […]
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 […]