Criminal Law Holiday Movies (You Might Be Surprised)

I’ve been saving this post for the holidays because it suits the season and, after a long break, it seemed like a good way to start back to work (at least for me). What’s your favorite criminal law holiday movie? It’s hard to pick just one. Bad Santa is up there for me. It’s a treasure trove of criminal offenses, big and small, particularly if you count repeat offenses, e.g., drunk and disruptive by Santa himself, played by Billy Bob Thornton. Social media occasionally blows up over whether Die Hard, a blow ‘em up movie with Bruce Willis, is a Christmas movie. The School of Government is, of course, neutral on the issue, but I have a personal connection to the movie, which I explain at the end of this post, like a bonus scene after the credits. What I really want to talk about is It’s a Wonderful Life, the classic Jimmy Stewart movie. Justice Newby of our Supreme Court discussed the movie’s criminal law implications in his concurring opinion in State v. Jones, 369 N.C. 631 (2017). In Jones, a payroll processor for a trucking company accidentally deposited $120000 into the defendant’s bank account instead of the $1200.00 owed him for his work as a truck driver. The defendant was informed of the error and was asked not to withdraw the excess funds, but he withdrew most of the money anyway. He was charged with and convicted of larceny. The Court of Appeals found that the evidence did not [...]