North Carolina Criminal Law

Last year, the General Assembly appropriated $3.5 million from federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding to the Department of Public Safety to be used as a […]

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In North Carolina, victims of domestic violence are protected by both civil and criminal laws. Our state’s Domestic Violence Protective Order (DVPO) laws are in Chapter 50B of the General […]

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Imagine a case of domestic violence in which the perpetrator physically and violently assaults a victim. The perpetrator punches the victim with his fist, grabs the victim by the throat […]

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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 […]

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One of the projects that I wanted to finish before I go was updating my old paper on the 48-hour rule of G.S. 15A-534.1. I just completed the update. The […]

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A bill has been introduced in the legislature that would allow for GPS tracking of domestic violence offenders. Has that been tried elsewhere? Would it be constitutional? Would it open […]

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North Carolina has a regular condition of probation requiring abuser treatment for defendants found responsible for acts of domestic violence. Today’s post discusses the condition, and what happens when a […]

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When setting conditions of pretrial release in domestic violence cases, magistrates and judges often order a defendant not to contact the victim. Those directives clearly apply to a defendant once […]

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This question in the title of this post came up in a recent class. The specific context involved a domestic violence defendant who was in jail waiting for a judge […]

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In getting ready for the North Carolina magistrates’ fall conference and a session that I’m teaching on issuing process in domestic violence cases, I began thinking about the ways that […]

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