Case Summaries: N.C. Supreme Court (Dec. 17, 2021); N.C. Court of Appeals (Jan. 4, 2022)

This post summarizes published criminal decisions from the North Carolina Supreme Court released on December 17, 2021, and decisions from the North Carolina Court of Appeals released on January 4, 2022. As always, these summaries will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a free and searchable database of case summaries from 2008 to present.   North Carolina Supreme Court - December 17, 2021: (1) Court of Appeals erred in finding that the trial court should have granted defendant's motions to dismiss for vindictive prosecution and failure to join; (2) remanded for reconsideration of defendant's double jeopardy argument. State v. Schalow, 2021-NCSC-166, __ N.C. __ (Dec. 17, 2021).  The facts of this case were previously summarized following the Court of Appeals decision in State v. Schalow, 269 N.C. App. 369 (2020) ("Schalow II"), available here.  The defendant was initially charged with attempted murder and several counts of assault against his wife, but the state only proceeded to trial on attempted murder and dismissed the assault charges. After discovering the indictment for attempted murder failed to allege malice, the court granted the state a mistrial over the defendant's objection. The defendant was subsequently tried for that charge on a new indictment and convicted. On appeal, the defendant argued in State v. Schalow, 251 N.C. App. 354 (2018) ("Schalow I") that the mistrial was granted in error because it sufficiently alleged manslaughter as written, and therefore the second prosecution violated double jeopardy. The appellate court agreed and vacated the conviction. In addition to [...]