North Carolina Lawyers Weekly

If defendant had been sentenced under the First Step Act – passed shortly after defendant was sentenced but expressly not retroactively applicable – his 168-month sentence would have been less than half the sentence he received pursuant to his plea ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

Defendant alleges that the government made misrepresentations about the DNA tests that contributed to his conviction. However, he filed his motion for relief under Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b)(3) well outside the rule’s one-year limit. On this matter of first ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

The defendant-juvenile admitted to pointing a shotgun at his mother, and the trial court entered a disposition order placing the juvenile in DSS custody. As all parties agree, the trial court failed to make the findings of fact required by ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

After adjudicating the juvenile defendant delinquent for simple misdemeanor possession of marijuana, the trial court entered a disposition order which did not include findings demonstrating that it considered the factors set out in G.S. § 7B-2501(c). The plain language of ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

Defendant’s pro se written notice of appeal was not timely filed, does not designate the court to which appeal is taken, was not timely served on the state, and is not accompanied by a certificate of service. These violations of ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

When a police officer found defendant trespassing in a public park after hours, defendant was not free to leave; however, his interrogation by the officer was not so coercive as to warrant Miranda warnings. The trial court correctly declined to ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

It is unclear whether, in denying a request for compassionate release from defendant – a 67-year-old man with emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who was extradited from Costa Rica after targeting U.S. citizens in a fraudulent sweepstakes scheme – ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

In line with hints in previous opinions and with federal appellate decisions, we hold that there is no Fourth Amendment “search” when police run a license plate check. Therefore, an officer does not need reasonable suspicion to investigate a plainly ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

In her opening statement, the prosecutor said the jury would hear defendant’s roommate testify that defendant had a mattress on his floor at the time he allegedly abused his girlfriend’s young daughter. Although the roommate did not testify, defendant has ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

In this breaking and entering case, both blood and fingerprints were found at the scene. Where the state’s fingerprint expert failed to establish that he reliably applied his procedure to the facts in this case, the witness’s testimony was insufficient ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice