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 […]
Can I Get a Remedy? Suppression of Chemical Analyses in Implied Consent Cases for Statutory Violations
Dan Defendant is charged with and arrested for driving while impaired. He is taken to a law enforcement center for administration of a chemical analysis. At 2:00 a.m., the chemical […]
Reasonable Suspicion Arising After An Officer’s Order to Stop
Normally, a law enforcement officer will attempt to develop reasonable suspicion before instructing a person to stop. But what if the officer does not have reasonable suspicion at that point, […]
United States Supreme Court to Review In re J.D.B.
I blogged here about In re J.D.B., a juvenile case in which the North Carolina Supreme Court held that a 13-year-old, questioned in an unlocked school conference room by police […]
Constructive Possession of Drugs
One of the most frequently litigated issues in North Carolina drug cases is constructive possession. Jeff wrote about one case (here) over a year ago. My research shows no less […]
News Roundup
In a previous news roundup, I posted an item about how to write like Chief Justice Roberts. But sometimes a negative example can be as useful as a positive one. […]