Case Summary: U.S. Supreme Court (Jan. 21, 2025)
This post summarizes a criminal law decision published by the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 21, 2025.
February 6, 2025
This post summarizes a criminal law decision published by the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 21, 2025.
May 24, 2023
Many, perhaps most, law enforcement officers in North Carolina are at will employees. As the saying goes, they may be fired for any reason or for no reason. But when […]
February 22, 2022
Were the constitutional rights of defendants who were prosecuted as adults in criminal court for offenses that they committed at ages 16 or 17, and prior to December 1, 2019, […]
January 14, 2020
In this blog post from 2012, Professor Jessica Smith summarized Rules of Evidence 101 and 1101, which together dictate that the rules of evidence apply to “all actions and proceedings […]
April 10, 2019
This question has come up more than once around here lately, so I thought it would be worth summarizing in a blog post. The defendant is in district court charged […]
September 27, 2018
An experienced attorney from another state recently remarked on her surprise at learning that there was no statute of limitations barring the prosecution of felony offenses in North Carolina after […]
March 26, 2018
Organizations around the country have called for bail reform. Here at home, a report by the North Carolina Commission on the Administration of Law and Justice recommended that North Carolina […]
November 20, 2017
Last week, the court of appeals reversed a defendant’s conviction for first-degree murder. That doesn’t happen every day, so let’s unpack the case. The central issue concerns two eyewitnesses’ in-court […]
June 26, 2017
The Supreme Court just decided Turner v. United States, rejecting the Brady claims of several defendants convicted of a brutal and highly publicized murder in Washington, D.C. Although the Court […]
June 20, 2017
An ancient maxim of the law is ignorantia juris non excusat, or ignorance of the law does not excuse. Put another way, it is presumed that the public knows the […]