Is It a Crime to Sell a Baby?
The News and Observer reported last week that “Duke University police arrested a Louisburg woman . . . for attempting to steal an infant [from] Duke Hospital.” It sounds as […]
News Roundup
The past week has seen Earth Day, the first round of the NFL draft, and continued travel repercussions from the massive cloud of volcanic ash coming from Iceland. (Best Iceland […]
Consent Searches and Outbuildings
The scope of a suspect’s consent to search is determined objectively, by “what . . . the typical reasonable person [would] have understood by the exchange between the officer and […]
Reasonable Mistakes and Reasonable Suspicion
The court of appeals issued several opinions yesterday. Among the most interesting is State v. Hopper, a case that addresses when an officer’s mistaken beliefs can support an investigative stop. […]
Apple’s Upcoming iPhone and Possession of Stolen Goods
Regular readers of this blog know that I’m interested in electronic gadgets. One of my favorites is my Apple iPhone, so I’ve watched with great interest the saga unfolding over […]
Photographs of Homicide Victims
The State’s effort to introduce photographs of a homicide victim into evidence often is met with defense objections. One objection sometimes asserted is that the photographs are inadmissible as substantive […]
News Roundup
As always, there’s a lot going on in the world of criminal law. 1. The headline news is, of course, Justice Stevens’s announcement that he will retire this summer. He’s […]
Satellite-Based Monitoring: Aggravated Offenses Revisited
I wrote about satellite-based monitoring (SBM) of sex offenders ten times in 2009. The court of appeals’ recent decision in State v. Phillips gives me my first occasion to write […]
Failure to Signal When Required
Under G.S. 20-154(a), “before starting, stopping or turning from a direct line [, a driver] shall first see that such movement can be made in safety . . . and […]
Alford Pleas
Someone asked me recently why so many defendants enter Alford pleas in North Carolina. I’ve wondered the same thing. When I was in private practice, I worked mostly in federal […]