Recent Blog Posts Page 331 on North Carolina Criminal Law Blog

The grim recent news out of Norway has spawned interesting commentary this week. The New York Times summarizes the basic facts: “at least 76 people were killed in the bombing […]

Shea Denning summarized S.L. 2011-191, Laura’s Law, in a prior post. To recap, the law adds a new punishment level for impaired driving sentencing, Aggravated Level One (hereinafter Level A1), […]

A recent question prompted me to research when a superior court judge should instruct the jury on a lesser included offense. The general standard is that a judge should do […]

Crime against nature is usually an “add on” to other charged sexual assaults, such as forcible or statutory sexual offense and indecent liberties with a child. In this post, I’ll […]

G.S. 14-415.1 makes it unlawful for “any person who has been convicted of a felony to . . . possess . . . any firearm,” with limited exceptions. In State […]

Although the furor about the Casey Anthony trial has generally died down, I am going back to the well one more time, because of this New York Times story. Briefly, […]

I mentioned in my previous post that the Justice Reinvestment Act (JRA) is not the only new legislation that impacts post-release supervision (PRS). This post looks at S.L. 2011-307, which […]

Earlier this month, the court of appeals decided State v. Joe, __ N.C. App. __ (2011) (Stephens, J.). A Winston-Salem officer was patrolling a drug-infested apartment complex at 2:00 in […]

Under existing law, only Class B1 through E felonies get post-release supervision (PRS). They are released from prison “on the date equivalent to [their] maximum imposed prison term less nine […]

New legislation this year creates a handful of new homicide and assault crimes protecting unborn children. S.L. 2011-60. The term “unborn child” “means a member of the species homo sapiens, […]