Officers Doing Blood Draws?
The Associated Press just published this story about a federal program in Idaho and Texas in which officers are trained to draw blood from people suspected of impaired driving. The […]
The Court of Appeals Weighs in on Vehicle Searches after Gant
The court of appeals released a batch of opinions yesterday. Several are interesting and important, and there were an unusually large number of opinions in favor of defendants, including some […]
News Roundup
Several recent news items may be of interest to readers of this blog: 1. FBI data shows that violent crimes, and especially homicides, dropped again last year and are now […]
Inconsistent Verdicts
Further Update: See Shea Denning’s post here about State v. Mumford, in which the court of appeals held that “logically inconsistent and legally contradictory” verdicts cannot stand. It has the […]
Evidentiary Issues in Sex Crimes Cases
I recently completed an Administration of Justice Bulletin on evidentiary issues in sex crimes cases. It’s available for free here. It covers the application of N.C. R. Evid. 412, i.e., […]
North Carolina Supreme Court on Searching Cell Phones
I’m still not done with the last round of court of appeals and North Carolina Supreme Court opinions, but I found a little gem in one of the high court’s […]
Melendez-Diaz “Fix”
Melendez-Diaz v. Massachussetts, as most readers of this blog know, is the United States Supreme Court’s latest pronouncement on the Confrontation Clause. Generally, it holds that forensic laboratory reports — […]
State v. Wagoner, Satellite-Based Monitoring, and the Ex Post Facto Issue Revisited
Last week the court of appeals decided State v. Wagoner, its latest case involving satellite-based monitoring (SBM) of sex offenders. Mr. Wagoner, who had previously been convicted of multiple reportable […]
Better than Lexis?
I am constantly amazed at the innovative work my colleagues are doing. A new and incredibly useful tool — but one that is not widely known — is Jessie Smith’s […]
News Roundup (Actual Innocence Edition)
Although there’s been a ton of relevant news since the last News Roundup, the most timely and interesting stories all relate to claims of actual innocence. To start with, Joseph […]