Case Summaries: Supreme Court of North Carolina (December 12, 2025)

This post summarizes the published criminal opinions from the Supreme Court of North Carolina released on December 12, 2025. Resentencing hearings are de novo unless otherwise limited by the mandate of the reviewing court. State v. Kelliher, No. 442PA20-2 (N.C. Dec. 12, 2025) (Cumberland County). The defendant in this case was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for offenses that occurred when he was seventeen years old. In 2013, he initially received consecutive sentences of life without parole, with concurrent sentences for robbery with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon. After mandatory life sentences for juvenile defendants were deemed unconstitutional in Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460 (2012), the defendant was resentenced to consecutive sentences of life with the possibility of parole. He appealed the new sentence, arguing that an aggregate 50-year parole eligibility date constituted a de facto sentence of life without parole. The supreme court agreed, establishing a rule that any sentence that requires a juvenile offender to serve more than 40 years before becoming eligible for parole is a de facto sentence of life without parole under the North Carolina Constitution. State v. Kelliher (Kelliher I), 381 N.C. 558 (2022). The court in Kelliher I remanded the case to the trial court with instructions to enter concurrent sentences of life with the possibility of parole. It gave no instructions as to the robbery sentences. On remand, the trial court judge sentenced the defendant to two concurrent terms of life with the [...]