Are Terry Stops “Custodial” for Miranda Purposes?
I used to answer this question “no.” But even though the United States Supreme Court recently said exactly that, see Maryland v. Shatzer, __ U.S. __, 130 S. Ct. 1213 […]
Failure to Request a Jury Instruction on Informants
I was catching up on the Fourth Circuit’s recent opinions this weekend when I came across United States v. Luck. It raises some interesting issues that are not specific to […]
District Court Calendaring Authority
I regularly am asked questions about criminal case calendaring. There are relatively detailed statutory provisions regarding the calendaring of superior court cases. As to district court cases, however, the statutes […]
Restitution for Drug-Buy Money
Back in March I wrote a post on restitution to government agencies, setting out the general rule in G.S. 15A-1340.37(c) that “[n]o government agency shall benefit by way of restitution except for […]
Are the Effects of a Prescription Drug the Proper Subject of Judicial Notice?
Suppose that David Defendant is charged with driving while impaired based upon an incident on in which he drove his car off the road and crashed into a tree. The […]
Noncontinuous Active Sentences
The court of appeals issued its decision yesterday in a case called State v. Miller. It answers a question I get asked a lot: Can an active sentence be served […]
Criminal Law Blog — Vacation Edition
I’m on vacation this week, so my blogging will be a little lighter fare than usual. Today, I thought I’d call attention to this article in the FBI Law Enforcement […]
News Roundup
The Supreme Court has been the subject of most of the interesting news over the past week or so. 1. The Court just finished the Term that began in October […]
Sentencing for Shoplifting
Some crimes have their own sentencing regime—impaired driving, drug trafficking, and first-degree murder to name a few. There are also crimes that fall under Structured Sentencing but that also have […]
McDonald’s Impact in North Carolina
The Supreme Court just finished the Term that began in October 2009, and it went out with a bang. On Monday, it announced what was perhaps the most-anticipated opinion of […]