Going “Beyond the Bounds” of Rule 404(b) in a Case Involving the Death of a Child
About a year ago, I wrote about State v. Hembree, 368 N.C. 2 (2015), a case in which the state supreme court reversed a murder conviction based on the State’s […]
March 7, 2016
Court of Appeals Upholds Admissibility of Social Media Evidence Based on Circumstantial Evidence of Authenticity
The court of appeals recently decided State v. Ford, a case about the authentication of social media evidence. This is the first North Carolina appellate case to give careful consideration […]
June 1, 2015
404(b) Evidence: How Much Is Too Much?
The state supreme court recently reversed a death sentence and a first-degree murder conviction because the State presented “an excessive amount” of otherwise admissible Rule 404(b) evidence. How much is […]
December 2, 2014
Authenticating Social Media Evidence
One of my all-time favorite emails was received from a prosecutor who was handling a drug trafficking case. The email included a picture, plucked from what purported to be the […]
September 23, 2014
Proving That Larceny of a Motor Vehicle Is a Felony
In some states, theft of an automobile is a felony regardless of the value of the vehicle. See, e.g., Fla. Stat. § 812.014. Not so in North Carolina. Motor vehicles […]
September 15, 2014
Evidence and Arguments about Prison Life in Capital Cases
During the second phase of a capital trial, the jury must decide whether to sentence the defendant to death or to life in prison. The jury’s perception of prison life […]
June 2, 2014
Authentication and GPS Tracking
I’ve had more and more questions about introducing GPS tracking data in criminal trials. When I think about digital evidence, I think about authentication as the first hurdle. This post […]
May 19, 2014
Authenticating Photographs Taken from Social Media Sites
Suppose that the defendant is charged with a gang-related murder. The State seeks to establish that the defendant is a gang member by introducing a photograph that a detective found […]
March 24, 2014
Hearsay Exceptions: Statements Against Penal Interest
In this, my last post in a long series on hearsay exceptions, I’ll address the Rule 804 exception for statements against penal interest. Rule 804(b)(3) creates a hearsay exception for […]
March 17, 2014
Hearsay Exceptions: Former Testimony and Dying Declarations
Rule 804 contains five hearsay exceptions that apply when the declarant is unavailable. I addressed one of them—the residual exception—in a prior post. Another one of the five—statements of family […]
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