State v. Smith, 206 N.C. App. 404 (Aug. 17, 2010)

The trial court did not improperly allow use of the defendant’s post-arrest silence when it allowed the State to impeach him with his failure to provide information about an alleged meeting with a drug dealer. In this murder case, the defendant claimed that the child victim drowned in a bathtub while the defendant met with the dealer. The defendant’s pre-trial statements to the police never mentioned the meeting. The court held that because the defendant waived his rights and made pre-trial statements to the police, the case did not involve the use of post-arrest silence for impeachment. Rather, it involved only the evidentiary issue of impeachment with a prior inconsistent statement.

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