The Common Law is Dead; Long Live the Common Law!
In State v. McLymore, 380 N.C. 185, 868 S.E.2d 67 (2022), our Supreme Court held that Section 14‑51.3 “supplants the common law on all aspects of the law of self-defense […]
Nontestimonial Identification Orders in Delinquency Matters
The law that governs the use of nontestimonial identification procedures in delinquency matters is markedly different than the law that governs use of these same procedures in criminal matters. The […]
A Refresher on North Carolina’s Needle Exchange Law and Other Harm Reduction Immunities
In response to the opioid crisis, North Carolina passed several protections designed to alleviate some of the legal liability surrounding drug use in the interest of harm reduction and public […]
News Roundup
The lead story in our December 9 news roundup was the Moore County power outage that resulted from the shooting of two local power substations. This week, several news outlets […]
Case Summaries – N.C. Court of Appeals (Dec. 29, 2022)
This post summarizes the published criminal opinions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on December 29, 2022. These summaries will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a […]
Human Trafficking: New SOG Resource Explaining Your Obligation to Make a Report and How the Agency Responds
January recognizes the importance of knowing about human trafficking. The President has declared January Human Trafficking Prevention Month (see the proclamation here). The North Carolina Governor and the Chief Justice […]
Case Summaries: Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (December 2022)
This post summarizes criminal and related decisions published by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals during December 2022. Cases of interest to state practitioners are summarized monthly. Previous Fourth Circuit […]
News Roundup
The national news this week focused on the discovery of classified documents at President Biden’s home in Delaware and former private office in Washington. Yesterday, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed […]
Case Summaries: N.C. Supreme Court (Dec. 16, 2022)
This post summarizes the published criminal opinions from the Supreme Court of North Carolina released on December 16, 2022. These summaries will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a […]
May a Judge Rule on a Motion to Suppress Evidence Seized Under a Search Warrant That He or She Issued?
Suppose a superior court judge issues a search warrant authorizing the search of a suspect’s house for drugs. Officers execute the warrant, find drugs, seize them, and charge the suspect […]