Shifting the Landscape for the Domestic Violence 48-Hour Rule?

The “48-hour rule,” as it is known in domestic violence cases, has been covered on this blog numerous times over the years (see here, here, and here). The rule shifts the responsibility of setting conditions of pretrial release from magistrates to judges in certain cases involving allegations of domestic violence. The rule is set out in G.S. 15A-534.1, which provides that a judge—rather than a magistrate—must set a defendant’s pretrial release conditions during the first forty-eight hours after arrest for certain offenses. Judicial officials and practitioners who handle criminal domestic violence cases should be familiar with both the statute and the long-standing ruling in State v. Thompson, 349 N.C. 483 (1998), that required dismissal of charges where G.S. 15A-534.1 was violated. Last year, the court of appeals decided State v. Tucker, 291 N.C. App. 379 (2023), which takes a different approach to determining the outcome of a domestic violence case that involves a 48-hour violation. This brief post details the facts of both cases and what Tucker suggests for domestic violence cases moving forward. State v. Thompson The court in State v. Thompson has held that the defendant must be brought before a judge at the earliest reasonable opportunity under G.S. 15A-534.1. In Thompson, the defendant was arrested on a Saturday at 3:45 p.m. and was not brought before a judge until Monday at 3:45 p.m., even though judges were available to set pretrial release conditions as of 9:00 a.m. on Monday. The state supreme court ruled that a violation of the defendant’s right to [...]