Jury selection in North Carolina criminal cases follows a structured process governed by state statute, and what happens during “voir dire” can shape the outcome of a trial in ways that are not always visible to defendants sitting at the defense table. The decision about who sits on a jury…
State v. Allison (December 12, 2025) represents the North Carolina Supreme Court’s definitive statement that self-defense jury instructions in castle doctrine cases must track the statutory decision tree rather than collapsing into a traditional common law reasonableness analysis. TL;DR: North Carolina’s castle doctrine under N.C.G.S. § 14-51.2 operates through statutory…
House Bill 307, known as Iryna’s Law, took effect December 1, 2025, and represents perhaps the most significant statutory reform to North Carolina’s pretrial release framework in decades. The legislation emerged in response to a high-profile homicide in Charlotte and puts into effect sweeping changes to bail procedures, pretrial detention…
State v. Rogers examines the relationship between constitutional violations and judicial remedies regarding suppressing evidence in North Carolina, focusing on when unlawfully obtained evidence should be excluded and when statutory good-faith principles may permit the admission of objectively unlawfully obtained evidence (in violation of statutory or constitutional precepts) despite a…
If you are facing criminal charges in North Carolina, recent court decisions may directly affect what evidence your lawyer can obtain and how quickly that evidence becomes available. One of the most important of these rulings is State v. Chemuti, a decision that changes how body-camera and dash-camera recordings are…
This guide explains how North Carolina prosecutors and defense lawyers analyze death by vehicle charges, proximate cause, and charging discretion in impaired-driving fatalities 1. The Case May Reach the Prosecutor Long After the Train Has Left the Station In some North Carolina jurisdictions, prosecutors learn about fatal crashes well after…
Mecklenburg County bond hearings follow the North Carolina pretrial release law, yet the way those bond hearings are scheduled, reviewed, and decided in Charlotte reflects the size of the 26th Judicial District, the structure of its felony dockets, and recent statutory changes (Iryna’s Law) that raised the bar for release…
DUI checkpoints in North Carolina remain constitutional under a January 2026 Court of Appeals decision that clarifies how police must conduct sobriety checkpoints and license checkpoints. In North Carolina vs White (“State v. White”) the North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed that a DWI checkpoint in Robeson County complied with both…
In North Carolina, questions about “stand your ground” turn on how the law evaluates whether the use of force was legally justified. That evaluation depends on where an encounter occurs, how it begins, and the legal consequences that flow from those facts. 1. Location affects the legal starting point North…
As of 2026, the phrase “stand your ground” is the gateway term that most non-lawyers use when they are trying to understand North Carolina self-defense law. N.C.G.S. § 14-51.3 addresses when defensive force, including deadly force, may be used in a place where you have the lawful right to be…