A UNC School of Government Blog
A civil case decided by the court of appeals last week, Blackwell v. Hatley, addresses when a witness may testify as to his or her opinion of how fast a vehicle was traveling. In Blackwell, the court held that an accident report prepared by a town police officer estimating the defendant’s speed at the time … Read more
It is a regular condition of probation that a probationer must “commit no criminal offense in any jurisdiction.” G.S. 15A-1343(b)(1). The condition is straightforward enough in theory, but it raises some tricky issues in practice. The main difficulty stems from the question of when a probationer can be said to have “committed” a new criminal … Read more
I just read this article, which cites a new study in support of the claim that “blogging is quickly becoming the thing that un-hip old people do.” Ouch! Apparently, hip young people think blogging is sooooo 2006, and they’ve moved on to social networking sites like Facebook. Of course, things move more slowly here in … Read more
The court of appeals just decided State v. Hernandez, which raises an important and recurrent hearsay issue. Briefly, the facts of Hernandez are as follows: the defendant traveled with his girlfriend, the victim, to her mother’s home. The defendant exhibited jealous behavior towards his girlfriend. His girlfriend told her mother that the defendant was “wanted … Read more
Under G.S. 15A-1341(a1), certain defendants may, with court approval, be placed on probation pursuant to a deferred prosecution agreement. To be eligible for this type of deferred prosecution the defendant must have been charged with a Class H or I felony or a misdemeanor, and the court must make findings that: Prosecution has been deferred … Read more
I’ve been asked several times recently whether an officer who asks a magistrate to issue an arrest warrant and is turned down based on a lack of probable cause can simply go to another magistrate and ask the other magistrate to issue the warrant. The answer is yes. There’s no double jeopardy problem because jeopardy … Read more
The Office of Indigent Defense Services (IDS) is studying data related to the disposition of seventeen types of misdemeanor charges during the 2009 fiscal year to determine whether decriminalization of these offenses might be an appropriate way to reduce the cost to the State of providing appointed counsel. Section 15.17 of S.L. 2009-451 directed IDS … Read more
Because a snowstorm is supposed to trap many of us in our homes this weekend, I thought I’d highlight some news items that may be of interest. 1. Judges Wynn and Diaz have moved one step closer to seats on the Fourth Circuit. 2. There have been developments in several high-profile North Carolina criminal cases: … Read more
Update: On February 16, the North Carolina Court of Appeals issued an opinion in State v. Davis, in which law enforcement officers were allowed to offer lay testimony without objection that the substance the defendant sold them was crack cocaine. In a footnote, the Davis panel stated that Llamas-Hernandez did not overrule Freeman as to … Read more
When a law enforcement officer is entitled to search a computer for evidence, she typically is entitled to look at every file on the computer, at least briefly. That’s because files that contain evidence of a crime may not be named drugtransactions.doc, but instead may be labeled airconditioningrepairbill.pdf, or something equally misleading and innocuous. Because … Read more