North Carolina Criminal Law

Does NC DMV Learn of Convictions in Other States?

July 22, 2022July 14, 2022 Shea Denning

(Author’s Note: This post was updated on July 22, 2022, to note that NC DMV reports all in-state convictions for drivers licensed in another state to the state of record.)

If a North Carolina resident with a North Carolina driver’s license is convicted of a motor vehicle offense in Virginia, will the NC DMV learn of the conviction?

Yes.

If a Virginia resident with a Virginia driver’s license is convicted of a motor vehicle offense in North Carolina, will the Virginia DMV learn of the conviction?

Yes.

Keep reading to find out why.

Evaluating Substantial Similarity of Prior Out-of-State Convictions after State v. Graham

July 13, 2022July 13, 2022 Jamie Markham

State v. Graham, 2021-NCSC-125, 379 N.C. 75 (2021), sheds new light on what it means for an out-of-state prior conviction to be “substantially similar” to a North Carolina crime for prior record level purposes.

Homemade Guns

July 11, 2022 Jeff Welty

Shinzo Abe, former Prime Minister of Japan, was shot and killed last week. News reports suggest that the man who killed him used a crude homemade gun. How are homemade guns regulated here?

News Roundup

July 8, 2022July 8, 2022 Shea Denning

Once again, the leading news story of the week is a mass shooting. This one occurred on Monday during a Fourth of July celebration in Highland Park, Illinois, a neighborhood dubbed Chicago’s “Mayberry.” The gunman reportedly shot from a rooftop, killing seven people and wounding more than 30 others. Officials recovered 83 bullet casings from the scene. Twenty-one-year-old Robert Crimo III has been arrested in connection with the shootings and has been charged with seven counts of first-degree murder. Keep reading for more news.

Habitualized Sex Crimes, Take Two

July 7, 2022 Jamie Markham

About seven years ago, I wrote this post about habitualized sex crimes. The issue I explored there was how to sentence a person convicted of a Class F through I sex crime when he or she has also attained habitual felon status. The question is whether the defendant, who is now sentenced as a Class B1 through E felon due to the habitual felon law’s four-class enhancement, is subject to the elevated maximum sentence applicable to Class B1 through E sex offenders under G.S. 15A-1340.17(f). When I wrote that post there was no appellate case answering the question. There is now.

Case Summaries – N.C. Court of Appeals (July 5, 2022)

July 6, 2022 Alex Phipps

This post summarizes the published criminal opinion from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on July 5, 2022. This summary will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a free and searchable database of case summaries from 2008 to the present.

News Roundup

July 1, 2022 Jeff Welty

Yesterday, Justice Stephen Breyer officially resigned his seat on the Supreme Court of the United States after 28 years of service. Justice Breyer, universally described as a kind and humble person, was one of the more liberal members of the current Court on criminal justice matters. In his famous dissent in Glossip v. Gross, 576 U.S. 863 (2015), he argued that the death penalty “in and of itself” constitutes a cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. His replacement and former law clerk, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, was sworn in by Chief Justice Roberts. ABC news has more details here, including a lovely picture of Justices Breyer and Brown Jackson together. Keep reading for more news.

Abortion and North Carolina Criminal Law after Dobbs

June 30, 2022 Jeff Welty

I was born the year before the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973). Abortion has been a constitutionally protected right very nearly my whole life, so I’ve never needed to examine the issue through the lens of criminal law. That has changed as a result of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 597 U.S. __ (2022), which overruled Roe. This post identifies some of the issues that may arise under North Carolina criminal law in a post-Roe world.

Case Summaries – Supreme Court of the United States (June 23, 2022)

June 30, 2022 Jeff Welty

This post summarizes cases decided by the Supreme Court of the United States on June 23, 2022. The cases are principally criminal law adjacent, but as appropriate may be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a free and searchable database of case summaries from 2008 to present. Shea Denning prepared the summary of Nance v. Ward, and I prepared the others.

June 29, 2022 Timothy Heinle

Below is a post I recently published on our On the Civil Side blog that I thought would be of interest to defense attorneys. The post explores the appeal of an order terminating a father’s parental rights following a hearing the father could not participate in because of a COVID-19 prison lockdown. The notions of due process, procedural fairness, and liberty interests will be familiar to you. The case, In re C.A.B., 2022-NCSC-51, also serves as a reminder that for a client who is incarcerated before or after a trial, the client’s life and family—and the world at large—go on.