A UNC School of Government Blog
Nationwide, the biggest criminal law news of the week comes out of Florida, where Casey Anthony was found not guilty of the murder of her two-year-old daughter, Caylee. I personally did not follow the case closely, but many of those who did were apparently surprised by the result. Anthony was convicted of four counts of … Read more
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
The United States Supreme Court decided a big Confrontation Clause case yesterday. I hope that Jessie Smith will do a full recap and analysis of it, but the central holding of Bullcoming v. New Mexico, from the Court’s syllabus, is that “[t]he Confrontation Clause . . . does not permit the prosecution to introduce a forensic … Read more
It isn’t often that a criminal law decision by the United States Supreme Court is an above-the-fold front page story in the News and Observer, but that’s the situation today. The case in question is J.D.B. v. North Carolina, and while I plan to blog about it in detail on Monday, the short version is … Read more
The General Assembly continues to move swiftly. Its budget is on the Governor’s desk, so legislators have turned their attention to other matters. For example, S 756, which would eliminate unsecured bond as a possible condition of release, and which would impose several limitations on pretrial release programs, passed the Senate and has moved to … Read more
According to the News and Observer, plea negotiations regarding former Senator John Edwards have not resulted in an agreement, and Edwards “was indicted today [editor’s note: literally, an hour or so ago] on charges of conspiracy and false statements and campaign law violations.” The paper previously ran a detailed analysis of some of the legal … Read more
The News and Observer reports that the government may seek an indictment against former Senator John Edwards as soon as next week. The case is expected to center around money funneled to Edwards’ mistress by two Edwards supporters, with the government contending that the money amounted to illegal campaign contributions and Edwards claiming that they … Read more
The big news nationally this week was the New York arrest and indictment of Dominique Strauss-Kahn on charges that he sexually assaulted a maid at a Manhattan hotel. Prior to his arrest, Mr. Strauss-Kahn was the head of the International Monetary Fund and was widely expected to be the next president of France. The New … Read more
The weather forecast calls for a rainy weekend: a good time to sit around, listening to some music. Preferably Bob Dylan, since he is apparently the musician most often cited in legal opinions, more than the Beatles and Bruce Springsteen combined. In other news: 1. The Innocence Inquiry Commission is looking into an Asheville murder … Read more
At least here in the Triangle, the headlines today are all about the Wake County conviction of Bradley Cooper for killing his wife, Nancy. I haven’t followed the trial closely, but I will follow the appeal with interest, because the defense has made clear that the trial judge’s exclusion of the defendant’s proposed expert witnesses … Read more