News Roundup

Published for NC Criminal Law on September 03, 2021.

Tragedy struck at Mount Tabor High School this week where a student, William Chavis Raynard Miller, Jr., was shot and killed, apparently by another student.  As the Winston-Salem Journal reports, hundreds of people attended a vigil for Miller yesterday at Mount Tabor United Methodist Church.  Keep reading for more on this story and other news. School Shootings.  The fatal shooting at Mount Tabor High sadly was the second school shooting of the week in North Carolina, following an incident at New Hanover High School where a student was injured in a shooting on Monday.  Governor Roy Cooper acknowledged both incidents while speaking in Winston-Salem on Thursday, expressing sympathy for the community and commending law enforcement and educators for their response. Bills.  There were developments this week on two pieces of legislation noted in last week’s News Roundup.  Governor Cooper signed SB 300 into law, legislation that makes numerous changes to North Carolina criminal law, including mandating first appearances for misdemeanor defendants and limiting the enactment of ordinance crimes.  Cooper vetoed a bill that would have eliminated the requirement to obtain a permit from the local sheriff to purchase a pistol. Dowless.  WRAL reports that McRae Dowless was sentenced to six months in federal prison this week after pleading guilty back in June to fraud charges not directly related to his involvement in the 9th Congressional District absentee ballot fraud scandal in the 2018 election.  The charges came about after a federal investigation into the NC-9 race revealed that Dowless had concealed [...]