In a recent Appellate Court ruling, State of North Carolina v. Joseph M. Romano No. COA15-940 (2016), the Court gives a clear indication that it is not going to allow law enforcement to cut corners in DWI cases where the defendant’s blood has been taken without a warrant or
We are seeing time and time again the expert witness standard being loosely applied in state trial courts. The Appellate Courts, in reviewing these cases, are sending a clear message to the trial courts that these errors are prejudicial, affect …
In a recent case from our NC Court of Appeals, one of the Judges concurring with the majority wrote a separate opinion where he declared that in order for the Appellate Courts to have sufficient facts to determine whether a …
In a recent case from our NC Court of Appeals, the Appellate Court vacated a Defendant’s DWI conviction on the grounds that there was not enough facts to support the checkpoint set up by law enforcement. The issue was whether …
A recent U.S. Supreme Court case has changed the rules on juvenile questioning making it easier for law enforcement to obtain confessions (J.D.B. v. North Carolina, October Term (2010)). Investigating two recent home break-ins, an Investigator with the Chapel Hill Police Department went to a middle school to
In a recent case from our Supreme Court, the Court affirmed the decision of the NC Court of Appeals to set aside a one (1) year NC DMV suspension for Petitioner Lee’s refusal to submit to a chemical analysis of his breath in a DWI criminal case (Richard
What was once sacred, “a man’s castle,” just lost considerable ground in regards to our Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches. A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, deriving out of Kentucky, gives law enforcement officers the authority to breakdown the door and enter without a search warrant, if
New search and seizure law requires law enforcement officers to limit their search of a vehicle incident to arrest, to areas within the immediate control of the person arrested for weapons and only for evidence of the crime for which the person is being arrested. When defining what constitutes
In a felony trafficking case of opium a veteran chemist of some thirty-four years with the State lab, admitted under oath that he had not tested all of the pills submitted. The chemist went on to state under oath that he had conducted a chemical analysis on about
In North Carolina the alcohol concentration evidence in DWI cases, is only prima facie evidence that one was impaired while driving. It does not create a legal presumption that (automatically) requires the fact finder to find guilt (State v. Simmons, 698 S.E.2d 95 (2010) citing State v. Narron,
