North Carolina Criminal Law Blog

Today’s post shares my answers to some of the questions I have been asked related to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the correctional system. As you might imagine, many of those questions are focused on ways to reduce jail and prison populations.

Under a law that existed from late 1994 to late 1998, North Carolina defendants sentenced to life without parole for offenses committed during that window are entitled to a judicial review after 25 years of imprisonment. I wrote about it here a few years ago, noting that the window for reviews would open in late 2019. Here we are.

I have started to get questions about G.S. 15A-1380.5, a repealed statute that used to provide for judicial review of sentences to life without parole after 25 years of imprisonment. It’s too early for a court to be applying the law just yet—the first reviews shouldn’t happen until 2019—but we’re getting close, and people are talking about it. Today’s post describes the law.

It is a Thanksgiving tradition for the president to pardon a turkey. This year, CNN reports, it was a Minnesota bird named Popcorn. But is executive clemency limited to avians? […]

Update: I spent some time over the weekend thinking about this case.  It seems to me that one likely upshot of Harbison is that some states that currently provide for […]