State v. Mumford: A Consistent Rule for Inconsistent Verdicts
I wrote here about the court of appeals decision in State v. Mumford, __ N.C. App. ___, 688 S.E.2d 458 (2010), vacating the defendant’s convictions for felony serious injury by […]
Guilt of a Codefendant
I’ve had a couple of questions about the same topic recently, so I thought I’d do a quick blog post about it. Our appellate courts have made clear that normally, […]
Obstruction of Justice
As the current edition of North Carolina Crimes explains, “[o]bstructing justice consists of any act that prevents, obstructs, impedes, or hinders public or legal justice, and it may take many […]
Probation Violations Arising During a Tolled Period
I recently presented at the North Carolina Probation and Parole Association’s annual conference. I received a lot of really good questions, but the subject that raised the most questions (by […]
News Roundup
I’ve been at the beach the past couple of days, teaching at conferences. (It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.) One of the talks I gave was […]
The Theory of Implied Consent
A few weeks ago, I blogged about the offense of operating while impaired. One of the issues I raised in the post was whether telling a defendant that his or […]
Attempted Assault
I’ve had a couple of questions lately about whether attempted assault is a crime. Nationally, there appears to be a split of authority on this issue. 6 Am. Jur. 2d […]
The Confidential Spousal Communication Privilege
It is hornbook law that “[a] confidential communication between husband and wife is privileged and neither spouse may be compelled to disclose it when testifying as a witness.” 1 Kenneth […]
Too Much Confidentiality?
For some time, I’ve been meaning to do a post about attorney-client confidentiality in extreme circumstances. For example, in this Chicago case, defendant X, who was charged with one murder, […]
News Roundup
Locally, the top story of the week is once again the situation at the SBI lab, which has outsourced some of its DNA analysis to a private lab, and which […]