Table of Maximum Permissible Punishments
For a variety of reasons, it is sometimes helpful to know the maximum punishment applicable to a particular type of offense. For instance, when charging a defendant with possession of […]
A Refresher on Aggravating Factors in Structured Sentencing Cases
The Supreme Court of the United States decided Blakely v. Washington in 2004, holding that any fact (other than a prior conviction) that increases a defendant’s sentence beyond the prescribed […]
Basics of International Extradition
Every now and then, someone asks me about international extradition. Usually it’s about Roman Polanski or some other bigwig charged in New York or California, but once in a while […]
News Roundup
Jeff has entrusted me with the virtual keys to the blog while he is away on vacation, and today will be my first crack at rounding up the week’s criminal […]
The Justice Reinvestment Act: An Overview
The Governor signed the Justice Reinvestment Act (S.L. 2011-192 (H 642)) into law last week. It makes substantial changes to the law of sentencing and corrections in North Carolina—easily the […]
Bullcoming and Substitute Analysts
On June 23rd, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Bullcoming v. New Mexico. As anticipated, the case turned out to be a straightforward application of Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, 557 U.S. __, […]
Probable Cause: The Same for All Crimes?
Suppose that a magistrate is asked to issue a search warrant for a particular residence. Based on the information presented to her by the applicant, the magistrate believes that there […]
DWLR as a Grossly Aggravating Factor for DWI Sentencing
Grossly aggravating or just grossly confusing? When is a DWI defendant driving while revoked for an impaired driving revocation? Several earlier posts (here , here and here) have discussed sentencing […]
News Roundup
The United States Supreme Court decided a big Confrontation Clause case yesterday. I hope that Jessie Smith will do a full recap and analysis of it, but the central holding […]
The SORNA-Compliance Dog That Didn’t Bark
Back in April I wrote this post about a pending bill (H 772) that was intended to bring North Carolina into compliance with the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification […]