Remember Britt v. State, 363 N.C. 546 (2009), in which the state supreme court ruled that a man with a single, non-violent felony conviction from 1979 had a state constitutional right to possess a firearm, making the felon-in-possession law, G.S. 14-415.1 unconstitutional as applied to him? I blogged about Britt here, but several years have now passed, and Britt has given rise to an interesting line of cases. Here are short summaries of Britt’s progeny, followed by a couple of additional comments: State v. Whitaker, 201 N.C. App. 190 (2009) (defendant was charged under G.S. 14-415.1; his motion to dismiss under Britt was properly denied as he had three felony convictions, including one for taking indecent liberties with a minor and one that was just two years old, as well as numerous misdemeanor convictions; the court of appeals analyzed the Britt issue under a five-factor test; I blogged about Whitaker here) State v. Buddington, 210 N.C. App. 252 (2011) (defendant was charged under G.S. 14-415.1; he filed a motion to dismiss under Britt, which the trial judge granted; the court of appeals reversed, finding that the defendant presented no evidence at the hearing on the motion and ruling that neither the unverified motion nor the statements of defense counsel constituted evidence that could support the trial court’s findings of fact) Baysden v. State, __ N.C. App. __, 718 S.E.2d 699 (2011), aff’d by equally divided court, __ N.C. __, 736 S.E.2d (2013) (plaintiff had prior felony convictions for (1) sale of [...]
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