A UNC School of Government Blog
Before December 1, 2006, GS 20-16.3A set forth requirements governing impaired driving checkpoints but not other types of checking stations and roadblocks. While non-DWI checking stations and roadblocks had to satisfy the strictures of the state and federal constitution, no specific statutory procedures governed their establishment and use. The Motor Vehicle Driver Protection Act of … Read more
Big news on the high court: Justice David Souter, who famously said that he had the world’s best job in the world’s worst city, is reportedly retiring at the end of the term in June. The New York Times story is here. Souter was appointed by the first President Bush on the assumption that he … Read more
The Supreme Court’s latest criminal law decision is Kansas v. Ventris, available here. The basic holding is that a statement obtained in violation of a defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel may be admitted for impeachment purposes, so long as the statement was voluntary. In brief, the defendant in Ventris was charged with murder and … Read more
OK, one more post about Arizona v. Gant, which I’ve previously discussed here and here. First, School of Government faculty member Bob Farb has written a short paper about Gant that summarizes the decision and its consequences. You can find the paper here. Second, I’ve been pondering one possible implication of Gant that I haven’t … Read more
I am occasionally asked about the adult sentencing consequences of a defendant’s juvenile history. The first-order answer is easy: juvenile adjudications never count toward felony prior record level or misdemeanor prior conviction level. This is true of all juvenile adjudications, even those for acts that would be Class A – E felonies if committed by … Read more
Recently, I blogged about limitations on a judge’s authority to enter a disposition of prayer for judgment continued in speeding cases depending upon the speeding charge. (You can read that post here.) The recent discussion regarding judgments in speeding cases begs the question of why specific speeds are part of the adjudication in the first … Read more
The fallout from the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Arizona v. Gant, see my initial post here, has been fast and furious. Most questions I’ve received have been about how it applies to existing and past cases, not to future searches. Here are a couple of common questions and answers. 1. Does Gant apply to … Read more
One of the things I do as Defender Educator is design CLEs for public defenders and private assigned counsel. In an effort to plan top-notch programs, I meet from time to time with trainers who do similar work around the country. They are the big dogs (BDs) of indigent defense education. I also like to … Read more
The Supreme Court decided Arizona v. Gant yesterday. The opinion is available here, and a news article about the case is here. It’s a pretty significant Fourth Amendment case, so let’s unpack it a little bit, and please excuse the long post. When an officer lawfully arrests a suspect, the officer may search the suspect … Read more
An interesting article appeared yesterday in the New York Times. You can read it here, but the gist of it is that the federal government and about 15 states are now collecting DNA from people who are charged with certain crimes, usually felonies, even if the individuals are not convicted. As the article observes, this … Read more