Case Summaries - North Carolina Court of Appeals (July 7, 2020)

This post summarizes published criminal opinions of the Court of Appeals decided on July 7, 2020. (1) Accessory after the fact and obstruction of justice are distinct offenses and evidence supported jury instructions on each; (2) Failure to instruct the jury on the defendant’s belief that the killing was justified by self-defense was not plain error State v. Cruz, ___ N.C. App. ___ (July 7, 2020). The defendant was convicted of accessory after the fact to a felony and felony obstruction of justice in Cleveland County relating to her efforts to assist a murder suspect (later convicted of second-degree murder) evade capture. (1) The defendant argued the statutory offense of accessory after the fact abrogated the common law offense of obstruction of justice in part, such that she could not be convicted of both. The North Carolina Supreme Court previously rejected this argument in In re Kivett, 309 N.C. 635, 670 (1983), which defeated this claim. The defendant also argued that the two offenses were the same for purposes of double jeopardy, in that they are greater- and lesser-included offenses of each other. This argument has also been rejected by the prior decisions of the Court of Appeals, as the offenses have different elements: “This Court has expressly held that accessory after the fact and obstruction of justice do not constitute the same offense, and that neither is a lesser-included offense of the other.” Cruz Slip op. at 9 (citation omitted). Substantial evidence supported each instruction as well. As to the [...]