North Carolina Criminal Law

Annual Report from the North Carolina Judicial College

November 24, 2020 Shea Denning

The North Carolina Judicial College was founded in 2005 to expand the education and training the School of Government has provided for judicial branch officials since the 1930s. Judicial College funding has enabled the School to provide more courses for a growing court system and to offer training in small group, interactive educational settings. Much … Read more

Reflections on Race and Justice: A Video Series from the NC Judicial College

November 23, 2020 Shea Denning

Following the killing of George Floyd, several of North Carolina’s judicial officials joined others across the state and nation in sharing their personal experiences and perspectives on racism, bias, and disparate treatment and in calling for improvements to our justice system. Wake County District Court Judge Ashleigh Dunston recounted in her Fall 2020 State Bar … Read more

News Roundup

November 20, 2020 Christopher Tyner

Houston news outlet FOX 26 recently highlighted a new report from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at UT Austin that examines COVID deaths in Texas prisons and jails, where the positive test rate is 490% higher than the rate in Texas as a whole. There are a number of notable findings in the report, including that 80% of people who died from the virus in jails were pretrial detainees and that nine people died after being approved for parole but before they were released. Slightly more than 10% of the people who have died in association with Texas correctional facilities were staff members. The full report is available here. Keep reading for more news.

Case Summaries – N.C. Court of Appeals (Nov. 17, 2020)

November 19, 2020 Brittany Bromell

This post summarizes published opinions issued by the Court of Appeals of North Carolina on November 17, 2020.

Sheriffs’ Association Releases Report Recommending Giglio-Related Reforms, Among Others

October 18, 2021November 18, 2020 Shea Denning

Last week, the North Carolina Sheriff’s Association released a 31-page Report on Law Enforcement Professionalism recommending numerous law enforcement reforms. The report, created by a working group formed after the killing of George Floyd and the public outcry for policing reform that followed, is part of “an effort to create a law enforcement profession that will not tolerate racism and excessive force by law enforcement, and that will hold North Carolina law enforcement to a high standard.” (Report at 5.) Changes are recommended for officer certification and de-certification, training, agency accreditation, use of force policy and data collection, and recruiting and retention. The document, which, among other things, contains the most comprehensive description of the training and education requirements for law enforcement officers I’ve ever seen, is worth reading in its entirety. This post focuses only on one aspect of the report: recommendations that would enable hiring authorities, certifying commissions and state prosecutors to learn of misconduct by officers, including untruthfulness, that would impair the officer’s credibility as a witness in criminal prosecutions and which must be disclosed to the defense.

Possession of Fentanyl

February 21, 2022November 17, 2020 Phil Dixon

In keeping with my recent work in the Chapter 90 realm, here is another issue, presented in pop quiz form. Without peeking at the statutes:

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A Closer Look at the Elements of Assault by Strangulation

November 16, 2020 Brittany Bromell

I have been getting several questions lately about the crime of assault by strangulation, a Class H felony under G.S. 14-32.4(b). This crime can be tricky because two of its four elements are not statutorily defined. This post explains those elements in more detail.

News Roundup

November 13, 2020 Christopher Tyner

The Greensboro News & Record reports that jury trials resumed this week in Guilford County after a nearly eight-month suspension due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The News & Record story discusses the difficult balance Guilford and other jurisdictions across the state are trying to strike as they grapple with a backlogged trial calendars amid increasing virus infection rates. Keep reading for more news.

Case Summaries: Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (October 2020)

November 12, 2020 Phil Dixon

This post summarizes published decisions from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decided in October, 2020, that may be of interest to state practitioners.

Supreme Court Un-“Capps” Amendments

November 11, 2020November 10, 2020 Jonathan Holbrook

A few months ago, Jamie Markham summarized the North Carolina Supreme Court’s decision in State v. Capps, 374 N.C. 621 (2020), affirming the procedure used by the state to cure a defect with the name of the victim in larceny and injury to personal property charges. The higher court’s decision reversed the Court of Appeals ruling in State v. Capps, 265 N.C. App. 491 (2019), a case that Jeff Welty blogged about here.

The more recent Capps case is one that I have found myself mentioning over and over again during presentations on pleadings, amendments, and legal updates, so I thought we should close the loop on those earlier blog posts by digging a little deeper into its holding. Procedurally, Capps is a significant and helpful case for the state, but it remains to be seen how one aspect of the decision will be reconciled with existing case law.