In a scheme to bring methamphetamine from Georgia to North Carolina, on the North Carolina leg of the return trip, defendant was in the lead car and was never in the car carrying the meth. Nevertheless, the prosecution proved constructive ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

During trial preparation, years after her controlled drug buys, an informant was looking at the state’s file when she saw defendant’s DMV photo – the only photo in the file – and was asked whether this was the person who ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

Defendant argues he should not have been convicted of soliciting a child under the age of 16 by computer because he had no definite plans to meet with 15-year-old “Danielle” before her sixteenth birthday. However, the state offered testimony from ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

The First Step Act allows a district court to reject a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence for a defendant convicted of possession with intent to distribute 50 or more grams of methamphetamine if, among other things, “the defendant does not have—(A) ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

Defendant’s supervised release could not have been revoked if he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, so defendant was not excused from invoking his right to remain silent by the “classic penalty situation” when his probation officer asked if ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

Even though defendant has languished in pretrial detention for nearly six years while the government attempts to restore his competency to stand trial, since (1) the grave offenses – involving child sexual abuse material – with which defendant is charged ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

Defendant’s presentence report (PSR) recommended a sentencing enhancement because defendant possessed a firearm in connection with his larceny of a car, but the issue of whether defendant had stolen the car – in which he fled from police – came ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

Although police used a suggestive show-up procedure for witnesses to identify defendant as one of the two men who robbed a strip club, other evidence clearly linked defendant to the robbery. We affirm defendant’s convictions for Hobbs Act robbery and ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

The statute pursuant to which defendant pled guilty was thereafter ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. Although defendant’s plea agreement waived his right to contest his conviction except in situations not present here, since the conduct to which he ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

For a year and 12 days in the midst of petitioner’s life sentence for two murders, South Carolina law would have allowed for the possibility of parole in petitioner’s case; however, that law was repealed well before it could have ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice