News Roundup
The Supreme Court announced on Monday its adoption of a Code of Conduct setting out the ethics rules and principles that guide the justices. In a statement accompanying the rules, […]
State v. Julius, the Automobile Exception, and the Exclusionary Rule
Joanna Julius was riding as a passenger in her parents’ car in McDowell County when the person driving the car crashed it into a ditch filled with water. The driver […]
The Abandonment of Digital Devices
Our cell phones and laptops normally are subject to a reasonable expectation of privacy, meaning that police cannot search them without a search warrant or an applicable exception to the […]
Questions of Law: Untangling Admissibility in State v. Gibbs.
Is fentanyl an opiate? That’s the question the prosecutor asked a witness in State v Gibbs. The trial court overruled the defendant’s objection, and the witness was permitted to testify […]
New Bulletin on Pretrial Release in Criminal Domestic Violence Cases
I recently finished a new Administration of Justice Bulletin on Pretrial Release in Criminal Domestic Violence Cases. It is available here as a free download. Through a series of questions and answers, the […]
News Roundup
Police in Boone may have narrowly averted a mass shooting this week. According to WRAL, Peter Gabaree was asked to leave a popular bar in the college town. He went […]
Case Summaries: N.C. Court of Appeals (Nov. 7, 2023)
This post summarizes the published criminal opinions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on November 7, 2023. These summaries will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a […]
A Closer Look at the New Misdemeanor DV Crime and the 48-Hour Rule
I previously blogged about the new misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, which will take effect on December 1, 2023. For the new offense, codified as G.S. 14-32.5, a person is […]
News Roundup
A group in Massachusetts is working to clear the names of people accused of witchcraft, according to this report from the AP. The Massachusetts Witch-Hunt Justice Project includes historians and […]
Probation Violations and the Pretrial Integrity Act
The Pretrial Integrity Act has been in effect for one month now and has generated several questions about the implications of the new provisions. Some of the most frequently asked […]