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 […]
Requests for Blood in Death by Vehicle Cases
G.S. 20-141.4 sets forth six offenses based upon the unlawful killing or injuring of another during the commission of a motor vehicle offense. All but one of these death or […]
Davis v. United States and the Future of the Exclusionary Rule
Virtually all courts interpreted Belton v. New York, 453 U.S. 454 (1981), to authorize a law enforcement officer to search the passenger compartment of a motor vehicle incident to the […]
J.D.B., the Supreme Court, and Miranda
As I noted last week, the Supreme Court of the United States just decided J.D.B. v. North Carolina, an important Miranda case. I blogged about the case here when it […]
News Roundup
It isn’t often that a criminal law decision by the United States Supreme Court is an above-the-fold front page story in the News and Observer, but that’s the situation today. […]