Case Summaries – N.C. Court of Appeals (September 1, 2020)

This post summarizes opinions issued by the North Carolina Court of Appeals on September 1, 2020. The trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying a mistrial and issuing a curative instruction in response to the State’s objectionable questioning of a witness; Defense counsel was not ineffective by admitting an element of the charged offense in closing argument and the admission did not constitute structural error under McCoy v. Louisiana State v. Crump, ___ N.C. App. ___, ___ S.E.2d ___ (Sept. 1, 2020).  In this sex offense case, the trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying the defendant’s motion for a mistrial and instead giving a curative instruction to the jury in response to the State’s objectionable questioning of a witness.  Defense counsel did not admit the defendant’s guilt over his objection in violation of State v. Harbison or McCoy v. Louisiana by admitting an element of the charged offense in closing argument. (1) Prior to trial in response to the defendant’s motion to exclude certain potential testimony, the State agreed to refrain from asking a detective about the victim’s grandmother allegedly pressuring the victim not to testify.  At trial, the State asked the victim about the manner in which she had been pressured not to testify and the defendant objected.  The trial court sustained the objection but denied the defendant’s motion for a mistrial, instead issuing a curative instruction striking the testimony from the record and from the jury’s consideration.  The Court of Appeals determined that the [...]