State v. Forte and the Competency of Elderly Witnesses
This week, the court of appeals decided State v. Forte, a case in which the defendant was convicted of exploitation of an elder adult in violation of G.S. 14-112.2 and […]
Boating While Impaired
Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer around these parts, and I thought I’d mark the occasion with a post related to boating (a favorite summer pastime) and crime […]
Motor Vehicle Checkpoints
I’ve just finished a paper about motor vehicle checkpoints. It’s available here as a free download. It’s meant as a resource for judges, lawyers, and law enforcement officers, and it […]
News Roundup
There wasn’t enough news last week to justify a news roundup, but there sure was this week: 1. The SBI lab saga continues. The president of the Conference of District […]
Is Arizona v. Gant Limited to Automobiles?
In Arizona v. Gant, __ U.S. __, 129 S. Ct. 1710 (2009), the Supreme Court held that an officer may search an arrestee’s vehicle incident to arrest only if the […]
State v. Davis: The Supreme Court Weighs in on Punishment under G.S. 20-141.4
I blogged here about the court of appeals’ opinion in State v. Davis, ___ N.C. App. ___ (2010), a case in which the defendant was convicted of several offenses and […]
Update on GPS Tracking
About two years ago, I wrote a paper on GPS tracking. It’s available here. There have been a couple of major decisions in the area recently, so this post is […]
Jones v. Keller
Last Friday, after years of litigation and months of deliberation, the Supreme Court of North Carolina issued its decision in Jones v. Keller. The case resolves the question of what […]
Presentence Reports and Sentencing Plans
In 2009 the General Assembly ordered the Administrative Office of the Courts and the Department of Correction to study the feasibility of conducting presentence investigations on “all offenders convicted of […]
Proving That Blood Was Drawn by a Qualified Person
Earlier posts (here, here, and here) discuss the statutory and constitutional requirements for obtaining a sample of a defendant’s blood for analysis in an implied-consent case. This post likewise addresses […]