North Carolina Criminal Law Blog

Justin “Drinks on Me” Timberlake is bringing it back this week after suing Sag Harbor Village to prevent the release of bodycam footage from his 2024 arrest for drunk driving, […]

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On Tuesday, President Trump delivered the State of the Union address. The address included mentions of immigration and fentanyl, with the President spotlighting the designation of Mexican drug cartels as […]

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With increased immigration enforcement in North Carolina, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is considering plans to construct and open at least three new jails to house detainees. Two potential jails may […]

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Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder, pled not guilty on Monday to running a lucrative drug trafficking ring. PBS has the story. Wedding competed at the 2002 Winter Olympics […]

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Tensions in Minneapolis escalated again Wednesday night as a federal agent shot and wounded a man during an arrest, an incident the Department of Homeland Security said followed a “violent […]

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Last Friday, Indonesia enacted its new penal code, replacing colonial-era laws that had governed the country for over a century. The legal reform implements a new national criminal code (KUHP) and a criminal procedures […]

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Additional information came to light last week in the case against Luigi Mangione, the 27-year-old man accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, during a key pretrial hearing on a […]

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Elizabeth Holmes, who was convicted in 2022 for defrauding investors and is now serving time in federal prison, claimed this week that a key piece of evidence against her was […]

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After 43 days, the government shutdown has ended. President Trump signed the spending bill late Wednesday night, funding the federal government through January 2026. Along with resuming funding for food stamps and federal worker salaries, the bill includes provisions allowing senators to sue the Justice Department as well as broader criminalization of hemp derived products. Retroactive to January of 2022, senators who have had phone records obtained without notification by the Justice Department would be permitted to sue for up to $500,000. While it does not mention special counsel Jack Smith’s probe of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the provision would apply to eight senators who had their phone records obtained as part of the probe in 2023. The spending bill also changes the lawful THC content threshold for hemp derived products from 0.3% Delta 9 THC to 0.4mg of any variant of THC. Farmers and legislators from around the country have voiced concern that this could effectively eliminate over 95% of products currently sold lawfully. Read on for more criminal law news.

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According to the Orange County (CA) District Attorney’s Office, a dozen mentally ill defendants facing criminal charges could be released if the county cannot find a facility to house them. District Attorney Todd Spitzer said that mentally ill inmates go to state hospitals for up to two years to restore competency to move forward with a trial. If competency cannot be restored, the defendant is remanded to a mental health facility. At present, the county appears to lack an adequate number of beds, which could result in the inmates being released into the community. Spitzer noted that the inmates include violent criminals accused of murder and sexual assault. The releases could occur within the next two months, with the earliest scheduled for today.

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