News Roundup
A Wake County couple was arrested last week on animal cruelty charges for poisoning three dogs belonging to a neighbor. Ironically, the husband was a donor and board member of […]
Case Summaries: N.C. Court of Appeals (May 16, 2023)
This post summarizes the published criminal opinions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on May 16, 2023. These summaries will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a […]
Case Summaries: Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (April 2023)
This post summarizes published criminal and related decisions released by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals during April 2023. Cases that may be of interest to state practitioners are summarized […]
Open Carry and Reasonable Suspicion
A decade ago, I wrote a post about the circumstances under which police may stop a person who is carrying a gun openly. A lot has changed since then. The […]
News Roundup
In U.S. Supreme Court news, the Court recently stayed the execution of Richard Glossip. Mr. Glossip has spent 26 years on death row in Oklahoma. This was his ninth scheduled […]
May a Police Department Release its Own Body Worn Camera Footage to the Public?
Suppose that a police officer in a North Carolina city shoots and kills a person in an encounter that began with a traffic stop. There is extensive media coverage of […]
News Roundup
The week began with news that one of the men accused of murder in the death of Wake County Sheriff Deputy Ned Byrd had escaped from a Virginia jail early […]
Case Summaries: N.C. Supreme Court (April 28, 2023) and N.C. Court of Appeals (May 2, 2023)
This post summarizes one published criminal opinion from the Supreme Court of North Carolina released on April 28, 2023, and three published criminal opinions from the North Carolina Court of […]
The Role of Administrative Traffic Offenses in the North Carolina Criminal Justice System
This post explores the large role that administrative traffic offenses play in the state’s criminal justice system. The Lab’s Measuring Justice Dashboard shows that non-violent misdemeanor charges make up the […]
Is NC’s Disorderly Conduct at Schools Statute Unconstitutionally Vague?
I started wondering about that question after reading a recent decision by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, Carolina Youth Action Project v. Wilson, 60 F.4th 770 (4th Cir. 2023) […]