Recent blog posts - 340 of 402

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, […]

TV news broadcasts often start with sensational celebrity news that may not be tremendously substantive. I’ll follow suit and highlight this AP profile of Casey Anthony defense lawyer Jose Baez. […]

I was at a meeting at the Department of Correction yesterday talking about some of the changes made by the Justice Reinvestment Act (JRA, summarized here). One of the big […]