The Court of Appeals Finds Indictment Errors -- We Offer an Updated Resource for Avoiding Them

The court of appeals issued a new batch of opinions today. They’re available in full here, and Jessie just sent summaries out to the listserv. (If you haven’t joined the listserv for case summaries, you can do so here.) The thing that jumped out at me about today’s cases was that the court found several fatal indictment errors. At the end of this post, I’ll mention a new resource for avoiding such errors. The defendant in State v. Herman was charged with being a sex offender unlawfully on a premises in violation of G.S. 14-208.18(a)(2). The defendant challenged the constitutionality of the statute, arguing that it was vague and abridged his rights to the free exercise of religion and to the freedom of association. The trial judge agreed and dismissed the charges. The state appealed. The court of appeals did not reach the merits of the issue, instead choosing to dispose of the case based on the insufficiency of the indictment, an issue not raised by the defendant. Essentially, the indictment charged that the defendant was willfully and unlawfully present on premises that were within 300 feet of a location intended primarily for the use of minors, in violation of G.S. 14-208.18(a)(2).  What the indictment didn’t do was allege that the defendant was a person required to register under Article 27A of Chapter 14 who had committed an offense in Article 7A of Chapter 14 or an offense with a victim under 16. Citing State v. Harris, discussed here, which held [...]