About a year ago, I wrote to let readers know that several chapters in the criminal law section of the Superior Court Judges’ Benchbook, a resource created and formerly edited by my colleague Jessica Smith, had been updated. I am writing now to let you know that several more have been added to that list. ... Read more The post 2024 Updates to the Superior Court Judges’ Benchbook appeared first on North Carolina Criminal Law ..read more

Singleton was supposed to make things simpler. As previously reported, in that case our Supreme Court attempted to eliminate some “obsolete technicalities” of the common law by abrogating the jurisdictional indictment rule, whereby a defective pleading deprives the trial court of jurisdiction. My colleague Danny Spiegel called it a sea change. The Court of Appeals ... Read more The post Indictment Technicalities: Gone Today and Here Tomorrow appeared first on North Carolina Criminal Law ..read more

In September, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a significant decision affecting the hemp industry on the federal level. There has been an open question for some time regarding the legality of certain cannabinoids that do not naturally occur in the cannabis plant but can be created from hemp products. THC-O (tetrahydrocannabinol acetate) is ... Read more The post The Fourth Circuit Weighs in on THC-O and “Synthetic” THC appeared first on North Carolina Criminal Law ..read more

The state legislature recently passed a law making patient brokering a felony. If you haven’t heard of patient brokering, well, you’re in the same boat I was in until recently. Read on to learn more. What’s patient brokering? Patient brokering, sometimes called body brokering, is an issue in the substance use disorder treatment industry. It ... Read more The post What Is Patient Brokering? appeared first on North Carolina Criminal Law ..read more

Our hearts are with our clients and others who have been affected by Hurricane Helene. Expertise among faculty and staff of the School of Government may be valuable to local governments in the aftermath. That expertise list can be accessed here. Additionally, the School has an Emergency Management website available, which lists various state and ... Read more The post News Roundup appeared first on North Carolina Criminal Law ..read more

This post summarizes the published criminal opinions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on October 1, 2024. These summaries will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a free and searchable database of case summaries from 2008 to the present. Defendant’s consent to search of vehicle was not per se involuntary; sheriff’s deputy ... Read more The post Case Summaries: N.C. Court of Appeals (Oct. 1, 2024) appeared first on North Carolina Criminal Law ..read more

In 2017, the General Assembly ratified S.L. 2017-166 regulating “fully autonomous vehicles” on state roadways. Shea wrote about that legislation here, noting “[i]f you expect your car to begin driving you to work later this fall, however, you’ll be disappointed. In this instance, legislation has outpaced the technology it regulates.” Seven years later, what’s changed? ... Read more The post Navigating Autonomous Vehicle Technology and the Law appeared first on North Carolina Criminal Law ..read more

I recently taught a session at the magistrates’ conference about arrestable conditions of pretrial release. The session sparked a lot of discussion about the law surrounding pretrial conditions for in-custody defendants. It is well understood that when a defendant violates pretrial release conditions after being released from custody, the law allows several mechanisms for enforcement, ... Read more The post Violation of Conditions Before Release appeared first on North Carolina Criminal Law ..read more

The State of Missouri put Marcellus Williams to death Tuesday, despite opposition from St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell and the victim’s family, the Associated Press reports. Williams was convicted of the murder of Lisha Gayle in 1998. Gayle was stabbed to death during a home burglary in which her purse and her husband’s ... Read more The post News Roundup appeared first on North Carolina Criminal Law ..read more

I am excited to share the latest annual report from the North Carolina Judicial College. Spoiler alert: In fiscal year 2023-2024, we offered more courses (51!) to more participants (more than 3,200!) than we have in my previous years as Judicial College Director. And our participants were pleased with the content, awarding our courses an ... Read more The post Annual Report from the North Carolina Judicial College (2023-2024) appeared first on North Carolina Criminal Law ..read more