News Roundup
A Wisconsin official who posted a photo of his marked ballot on Facebook during the April 2022 election had felony charges against him dropped Monday. Paul Buzzell, a member of a local […]
Case Summaries: N.C. Court of Appeals (Nov. 21, 2023)
This post summarizes the published criminal opinions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on November 21, 2023. These summaries will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a […]
New Law Authorizing Public Release of Juvenile Information in Limited Circumstances
One of the central differences between delinquency matters and criminal matters is that juvenile records are not subject to public inspection. This includes juvenile court records (G.S. 7B-3000(b)); all law […]
“Here Is Your Stuff Back, Man”: When Returning a Driver’s License and Registration Doesn’t Terminate a Stop
Consider a fact pattern that takes place every day, all across the country: a police officer stops a motorist for a traffic infraction, runs the motorist’s license through a computer […]
New Trafficking Fines Coming for Heroin, Fentanyl, and Carfentanil
My colleague Jeff Welty recently wrote about S.L. 2023-123 and changes to our death by drug distribution laws. He mentioned changes to the mandatory drug trafficking fines for certain drugs […]
Case Summaries: Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (Oct. 2023)
This post summarizes published criminal law and related cases released by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals during October 2023. Cases of potential interest to state practitioners are summarized monthly. […]
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 […]