Homemade Guns
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 […]
News Roundup
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 […]
Habitualized Sex Crimes, Take Two
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 […]
Case Summaries – N.C. Court of Appeals (July 5, 2022)
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 […]
News Roundup
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 […]
Abortion and North Carolina Criminal Law after Dobbs
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 […]
Case Summaries – Supreme Court of the United States (June 23, 2022)
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 […]
COVID and the Due Process Rights of Incarcerated Parents
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 […]
Legally Permissible Uses of Juvenile Detention
One of the many unique features of the juvenile justice system is the law related to the permissible uses of detention. Called secure custody in the Juvenile Code, placement of […]
Arson Law Revisions
The North Carolina General Assembly recently passed S.L. 2022-8 which makes various changes to the existing arson laws. The new criminal provisions go into effect on December 1, 2022 and […]