In an odd turn of events for the person known as the “champion of the falsely accused,” WRAL reports that Christine Mumma was accused herself this week by the North Carolina State Bar of violating the Rules of Professional Conduct. Mumma serves as executive director and legal counsel for the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence. The allegations arise from Mumma’s work to free Joseph Sledge, who spent thirty-six years behind bars for the killing of a mother and her daughter in Bladen County in 1976 before he was exonerated last January.
news roundup
News Roundup
Yesterday a jury in Wake County convicted Markeith Council, a former detention officer at the Wake County jail, of involuntary manslaughter for killing inmate Shon McClain, who was jailed on misdemeanor charges, after McClain fought the guard. A video shown at the trial shows the much larger Council slamming McClain twice on the concrete floor. … Read more
News Roundup
Jeff is away from the office today so he entrusted me with the keys to the blog. I briefly considered filling this post with a series of hilarious 6-second Vines of my kids, but ultimately decided to stick with the traditional roundup of the week’s criminal law news. (What’s a Vine? See here. Or just … Read more
News Roundup
Jeff’s away and has left me in charge of the news roundup. So there’ll be no Gizmodo stories this week. (I’m still figuring out how to work my iPhone.) Fortunately, the week was full of criminal law news that doesn’t require the cracking of any source codes. 1. The General Assembly adjourned on Tuesday, July … Read more
News Roundup
Jeff has entrusted me with the virtual keys to the blog while he is away on vacation, and today will be my first crack at rounding up the week’s criminal law news. As always there’s a lot going on! 1. According to the annual summary report of uniform crime reporting data released this week, crime in … Read more
News Roundup
The biggest headlines this week surrounded the confirmation of Elena Kagan as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The New York Times has the basics here, and Dahlia Lithwick at Slate has a provocative piece suggesting that we might be in for many, many years of skirmishes between Justice Kagan and Chief … Read more
News Roundup
Lots of interesting stuff this week. Without further ado: 1. The front page of the News and Observer today has a story that begins as follows: “Someone accused of killing a white person in North Carolina is nearly three times as likely to get the death penalty than someone accused of killing a black person, … Read more
News Roundup
There have been several interesting stories since the last news roundup, which was two weeks ago. 1. The General Assembly adjourned the short session when it finished the budget. The budget includes cuts for the court system, along with virtually every other part of state government. My understanding is that the AOC has allocated a … Read more
News Roundup: World Cup Edition
The world’s biggest sporting event begins today in South Africa. I’ve been playing soccer more or less continuously — albeit not very well — for more than 30 years. Predictably, I’m pretty excited about the World Cup, especially the critical matchup tomorrow between the United States and England. But for today, I remain focused on … Read more
News Roundup
Recent stories of interest include the following: 1. The News and Observer reports that the state House just passed its version of the budget. The last version that I saw — admittedly, not the final — included significant cuts to the court system, and deep cuts to the UNC system. The House budget must now … Read more