This post summarizes opinions issued by the Court of Appeals of North Carolina on May 5, 2020.
court of appeals
Case Summaries – N.C. Court of Appeals (April 7, 2020)
This post summarizes published criminal decisions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals decided on April 7, 2020.
Case Summaries – N.C. Court of Appeals (1/21/2020)
This post summarizes opinions issued by the Court of Appeals of North Carolina on January 21, 2020.
Case Summaries: N.C. Court of Appeals (Jan. 7, 2020)
This post summarizes published criminal opinions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals decided yesterday, Jan. 7, 2020.
Case Summaries: N.C. Court of Appeals (October 15, 2019)
This post summarizes published criminal decisions (and two other decisions of note) from the North Carolina Court of Appeals decided on October 15, 2019.
When a Person Sells Drugs Away from His or Her Home, Does that Provide Probable Cause to Search the Person’s Home?
The question in the title of this post is an oversimplified version of the issue addressed by the court of appeals last week in State v. Bailey, __ N.C. App. __, __ S.E.2d __, 2019 WL 3925864 (Aug. 20, 2019). But it isn’t oversimplified by much, and the appellate division may be inching closer to answering the question in the affirmative.
Case Summaries — North Carolina Court of Appeals
This post provides summaries of the opinions of the North Carolina Court of Appeals published on August 20, 2019.
Shooting an Officer the Bird
Editor’s note: The opinion analyzed in this post was withdrawn shortly after publication and replaced with this opinion reaching the same outcome.
Last week, in State v. Ellis, __ N.C. App. __, __ S.E.2d __, 2019 WL 3559644 (N.C. Ct. App. Aug. 6, 2019), a divided panel of the court of appeals held that a trooper properly stopped a vehicle “after witnessing . . . a passenger in [the] vehicle . . . extend his middle finger in the trooper’s general direction.” The majority acknowledged that “there are a number of decisions from courts across the country [holding] that one cannot be held criminally liable for simply raising his middle finger at an officer.” Yet it ruled that the defendant’s conduct provided reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, namely, disorderly conduct. See generally G.S. 14-288.4(a)(2) (making it unlawful to make a gesture “intended and plainly likely to provoke violent retaliation”). Let’s take a closer look at Ellis.
State v. Copley: Addressing Race During Closing Argument
Last month, the North Carolina Court of Appeals decided State v. Copley, __ N.C. App. __, 2019 WL 1996441 (May 7, 2019), in which a divided panel held that the trial court abused its discretion by overruling the defendant’s objections to the prosecutor’s remarks about race during closing argument. For that reason, the Court vacated the defendant’s first degree murder conviction. This post discusses the law governing when parties in a criminal trial may discuss issues of race, as well as emerging strategies for mitigating the effects of implicit racial bias on decision-makers.
Court of Appeals “Capps” Prosecutors’ Use of Statements of Charges in Superior Court
The ability to file a misdemeanor statement of charges is a superpower for district court prosecutors, enabling them to overcome virtually any error in a criminal pleading with the stroke of a pen. Arraignment in district court is kryptonite, robbing the superpower of its efficacy. This dynamic was on full display in State v. Capps, __ N.C. App. __, __ S.E.2d __, 2019 WL 2180435 (May 21, 2019), a recent opinion by the court of appeals.