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 […]
News Roundup
It is hard to find good help these days, with unemployment low and employers competing fiercely for workers. It’s well known that law enforcement agencies are having trouble recruiting sworn […]
Case Summaries – N.C. Court of Appeals (June 21, 2022)
This post summarizes published criminal opinions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on June 21, 2022. These summaries will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a free […]
Case Summaries: Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (May 2022)
This post summarizes published criminal and related decisions released by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals during May 2022. Decisions that may be of interest to state practitioners are summarized […]
Case Summaries – Supreme Court of N.C. (June 17, 2022)
This post summarizes published criminal decisions from the Supreme Court of North Carolina released on June 17, 2022. These summaries will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a free […]
Suing the Police over Tight Handcuffs
On Friday, the Supreme Court of North Carolina decided a civil case in which an arrestee alleged that he was handcuffed too tightly by the arresting officer. The court allowed […]
News Roundup
Many Americans have been paying close attention to the proceedings of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. Among the interested observers […]
Enforcing Ignition Interlock Requirements
I wrote last week about changes to North Carolina’s ignition interlock statutes that were effective June 1, 2022. As I noted in that post, one of those changes was to […]
The Court Appearance Project
Diverse teams of justice system stakeholders in New Hanover, Orange, and Robeson counties participated in the North Carolina Court Appearance Project, seeking to improve local court appearance rates and develop […]
Book Review: Sentence, by Daniel Genis
My local public library recently acquired a copy of Sentence: Ten Years and a Thousand Books in Prison by Daniel Genis. It’s a memoir of the author’s ten years in […]