The Exclusionary Rule and Probation Hearings
North Carolina’s appellate courts have long said that a proceeding to revoke probation is not a criminal prosecution or a formal trial. Instead, probation hearings are generally regarded as informal […]
Strict Liability Crimes
In prior posts, I discussed transferred intent and criminal negligence. Intent and criminal negligence, along with malice and willfulness are some of the common states of mind that the prosecution […]
Proposed Ethics Opinion about Interviewing Child Witnesses
Last month, the State Bar issued a proposed ethics opinion regarding contact between prosecutors and defense lawyers, on the one hand, and children who are prosecuting witnesses in criminal cases […]
News Roundup
I intended to have a deep, substantive post ready for today. But in the press of holiday preparations, I didn’t complete it — and in any case, there’s been some […]
Confrontation Rights Apply at Sentencing in Noncapital Cases
In 2002, David Hurt pled guilty to second-degree murder. Over the next several years his case bounced back and forth between the trial and appellate courts based on problems with […]
The Nose Doesn’t Always Know: Extrapolation Based on Odor Ruled Unreliable
The Court of Appeals decided State v. Davis, 208 N.C. App. 26 (2010), last week, granting the defendant a new trial on second-degree murder, impaired driving and other charges arising […]
News Roundup
The court of appeals issued a batch of opinions this week, at least two of which are absolutely fascinating and will be featured on this blog next week. But those […]
Criminal Negligence
Criminal negligence (sometimes called culpable negligence) means recklessness or carelessness that shows a thoughtless disregard of consequences or a heedless indifference to the safety and rights of others. State v. […]
Transferred Intent
Suppose a defendant acts intending to do one thing but ends up doing something else. For example, suppose the defendant shoots at A, intending to kill A, but misses and […]
Second Installment: Suppression of Chemical Analyses in Implied Consent Cases for Statutory Violations
Stan Speedy is charged with impaired driving. He has filed a motion to suppress evidence of blood test results based on a violation of his Fourth Amendment and his statutory […]