In State v. Richardson, 272A14, filed 1 September 2023, the Supreme Court of North Carolina reviewed the conviction and sentencing of the defendant. The evidence indicated the gruesome and protracted abuse of a child that...more
9/8/2023
/ Appeals ,
Bias ,
Child Abuse ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Denial of Certiorari ,
Dissenting Opinions ,
Evidence ,
First Degree Murder ,
Jury Trial ,
Mitigating Factors ,
NC Supreme Court ,
North Carolina ,
Recusal
I’m afraid it’s time to add another to my recent string of blog posts honoring remarkable judges and justices who have left the bench. United States Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit David Sentelle has...more
Over the last few years, Confederate monuments in many North Carolina towns and cities have been objects of controversy. As one who parked for eighteen years in the shadow of the towering and now-departed Confederate...more
With little notice or fanfare, the latest North Carolina Senate budget bill stands poised to make a significant change in North Carolina appellate practice. Currently there are several routes to the Supreme Court of North...more
It’s not unusual to see changes on the bench with the arrival of a new year. Come January 1, 2023, Justice Dietz and Justice Allen will join the Supreme Court of North Carolina. All readers of this blog will wish each a...more
On May 3, 2022, the North Carolina Court of Appeals issued a large batch of opinions. By my count, twenty-two were published and thirty were unpublished. While history may prove me wrong, none of the published opinions...more
5/12/2022
/ Appeals ,
Appellate Courts ,
Counterclaims ,
Ineffective Assistance of Counsel ,
Investigations ,
Life Estates ,
Manslaughter ,
Motion for Reconsideration ,
NC Supreme Court ,
North Carolina ,
Pro Se Litigants ,
Rules of Civil Procedure ,
Statement of Grounds ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Will Caveats ,
Wills
The holding in Batson v. Kentucky, 479 U.S. 79 (1986), that racial discrimination has no place in jury selection, continues to generate caselaw. As noted in a prior blog post, the Supreme Court of North Carolina had never...more
An intriguing by-play between judges on the North Carolina Court of Appeals recently emerged into public view in the case of State v. Calvin Lee Miller.
After shooting his wife, Miller was convicted of attempted...more
If there’s one thing we all remember from law school, it’s the old rule of common law that each dog gets one bite before the owner is on notice that the creature is dangerous. Though that rule has been refined over the years,...more
The recent opinion of the North Carolina Court of Appeals in M.E. v. T.J., No. COA18-1045 has more twists than a Chubby Checker look-alike contest. The opinion is long and the facts and procedure are somewhat convoluted, but...more
Matt blogged last week on Doe v. City of Charlotte, in which we were given multiple lessons in both how to and how not to handle an appeal. Authoring Judge Dietz’s pre-bench experience as an appellate practitioner shows...more
In Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prevents prosecutors in criminal cases from exercising peremptory challenges to excuse...more
7/31/2020
/ Appeals ,
Batson claim ,
Burden-Shifting ,
Certiorari ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Dissenting Opinions ,
Equal Protection ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
Jury Selection ,
NC Supreme Court ,
SCOTUS
Last year, I blogged about State v. Ellis where a passing motorist gave a Highway Patrol trooper the middle-finger salute and was arrested for his trouble. A divided Court of Appeals allowed the defendant’s conviction to...more
In State v. Golder, 79PA18, filed 3 April 2020, the Supreme Court of North Carolina provided helpful guidance on a vexing issue relating to error preservation: Does a general motion to dismiss preserve for appellate review...more
State v. Campbell is a case that is proving as hard to finish off as Freddy Kreuger or Wile E. Coyote. Campbell has earned its third blog entry following yet another opinion by the Supreme Court of North Carolina. And, like...more
The Supreme Court of North Carolina just issued a fascinating but divided opinion with facts straight out of a 1940’s noir thriller. How far can a would-be wife killer go before he gets into serious trouble?
The case is...more