Smith's Criminal Case Compendium
Smith's Criminal Case Compendium
Table of Contents
Smith's Criminal Case Compendium
About
This compendium includes significant criminal cases by the U.S. Supreme Court & N.C. appellate courts, Nov. 2008 – Present. Selected 4th Circuit cases also are included.
Jessica Smith prepared case summaries Nov. 2008-June 4, 2019; later summaries are prepared by other School staff.
Instructions
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The defendant did not sufficiently demonstrate that he qualifies as an “Indian” under the federal Indian Major Crimes Act (IMCA) and, consequently, the trial court did not err in refusing to dismiss state murder, robbery, and weapons charges on jurisdictional grounds or in ruling that the...
In this Pasquotank County case, defendant appealed his conviction for first-degree murder, arguing the trial court erred in several matters related to the COVID-19 pandemic and by admitting irrelevant and hearsay testimony. The Court of Appeals found no error.
In May of 2018, defendant was...
In this case arising from a high-profile incident where William Joseph Barber was convicted of second-degree trespass for refusing to leave the office area of the General Assembly while leading a protest related to health care policy after being told to leave by security personnel for violating...
In this case from Randolph County, the Court of Appeals initially vacated the defendant’s conviction for possession of heroin (discussed here). The North Carolina Supreme Court reversed, finding the...
The defendant in this Forsyth County case was charged with two counts felony breaking or entering, two counts felony larceny after b/e, two counts felony larceny of property over $1000, and habitual breaking or entering, stemming from two break-ins and larcenies from Wake Forest University...
The elected district attorney for prosecutorial district 2, which includes Washington County, filed an ex parte motion in superior court to determine whether a criminal investigative file contained potentially exculpatory information involving a Washington County law enforcement officer that the...
In this DWI case, the superior court properly denied the defendant’s motion to dismiss the indictment for lack of jurisdiction. The defendant asserted that because the State failed to dismiss the citation charging the offense in district court, that charge remained valid and pending in district...
The trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to enter an order denying the defendant’s motion for post-conviction DNA testing pursuant to G.S. 15A-269 while the defendant’s appeal from the original judgment of conviction was pending. The defendant was convicted of an attempted sexual...
In this Miller Eighth Amendment/LWOP case, the superior court lacked jurisdiction to enter judgment. The trial court resentenced the defendant in response to a decision by the North Carolina Supreme Court, but before the mandate had issued from that Court. The court vacated the judgment...
In a case in which the defendant was originally charged with habitual impaired driving, driving while license revoked and speeding, the superior court did not have subject matter jurisdiction to try the misdemeanor or the infraction where the State dismissed the felony DWI charge before trial....
(1) The superior court was without subject matter jurisdiction with respect to three counts of first-degree statutory rape, where no evidence showed that the defendant was at least 16 years old at the time of the offenses. The superior court may obtain subject matter jurisdiction over a juvenile...
Based on the victim’s testimony that the alleged incident occurred in his bedroom, there was sufficient evidence that the charged offense, crime against nature, occurred in the state of North Carolina.
(1) North Carolina had territorial jurisdiction to prosecute the defendant for embezzlement. The defendant was a long distance driver employed by a North Carolina moving company. The defendant was charged with having received funds from a customer out-of-state and having converted them to his...
Where the defendant was charged with impaired driving and reckless driving and the State took a voluntary dismissal of the reckless driving charge in district court, that charge was not properly before the superior court on appeal for trial de novo and judgment on that offense must be vacated....