About a year ago, I wrote this post, discussing what was then a new provision in G.S. 15A-304(b): “[A]n official shall only find probable cause based solely on information provided by a person who is not a sworn law enforcement officer if the information is provided by written affidavit.” This year, the General Assembly reversed course and removed the affidavit requirement. The law before 2017. Prior to 2017, G.S. 15A-304 simply required a judicial official, before issuing an arrest warrant, to receive “sufficient information, supported by oath or affirmation, to make an independent judgment that there is probable cause.” The statute did not differentiate between information provided by a law enforcement officer and information provided by a civilian, and it allowed for the information to be presented by affidavit or by sworn oral testimony. The criminal summons statute, G.S. 15A-303, incorporated by reference the probable cause standard of the arrest warrant statute. The upshot of all this is that an aggrieved person could appear before a magistrate, swear orally to facts providing probable cause, and ask the magistrate to issue an arrest warrant or a criminal summons. The 2017 change. As noted above, in 2017 the General Assembly effectively required citizens seeking criminal process to put the facts supporting probable cause in a written affidavit. It also strengthened the statutory preference for issuing a criminal summons, rather than an arrest warrant, in a citizen-initiated case. The 2018 change. This legislative session, the General Assembly removed the written affidavit requirement. It did [...]