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 […]
Comprehensive Resources Regarding Sex Offender Registration and Monitoring
Jamie Markham’s famous sex offender flow chart is the best one page reference that money can buy. And it’s free! The latest revision is available here. Jamie has also put […]
News Roundup
As always, the past week has seen a tremendous amount of interesting criminal law news. Nationally, the story that has drawn the most attention is the conclusion of the Stephen […]
Cyberbullying
Perhaps in response to news reports of teen suicides blamed on embarrassing and/or insensitive web postings, I have been fielding a fair number of calls about North Carolina’s cyberbullying statute. […]
Consent to Search under Threat of Search Warrant
To be valid, consent to search must be voluntary. Is consent voluntary when given after an officer thrreatens to obtain a search warrant if consent is withheld? Generally, yes. See […]
Contingent Probation Cases
Under G.S. 15A-1346(a), a “period of probation commences on the day it is imposed and runs concurrently with any other period of probation, parole, or imprisonment to which the defendant […]
United States Supreme Court Grants Cert. in Substitute Analyst Case
In at least five prior posts on this blog (here, here, here, here, and here) I have written about the use of substitute analysts after Crawford and Melendez-Diaz. The basic […]
News Roundup
The biggest news of the past week was, of course, the election. Results for judicial and district attorney races are available here from the State Board of elections. (You have […]