News Roundup

The News & Observer reports that the General Assembly has passed a bill that reduces the number of judges on the North Carolina Court of Appeals from fifteen to twelve.  The bill is controversial – supporters say that fewer judges are needed because the workload of the Court of Appeals has declined over the past decade while opponents say that the intent of the bill is to limit Governor Roy Cooper’s ability to replace judges who are approaching mandatory retirement.  The legislation is House Bill 239, which Jeff mentioned a few weeks ago in a post about the court’s caseload. This is the last post of the week as the SOG is closed tomorrow for a holiday, keep reading for more news. Solitary.  The North Carolina Department of Public Safety partnered with the Vera Institute of Justice to investigate ways to reduce the use of solitary confinement in the state’s prisons and a report of the results has been released, according to this article from the Charlotte Observer.  The Observer article says that the number of North Carolina inmates in solitary has been reduced by more than half since 2012, but that a number of problems with the state’s practice persist. Forensic Science.  The Washington Post reports that Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Monday that “he would not renew the National Commission on Forensic Science, a roughly 30-member advisory panel of scientists, judges, crime lab leaders, prosecutors and defense lawyers chartered by the Obama administration in 2013.”  Sessions also announced that the [...]