Articles Posted in Stand Your Ground NC

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…

In North Carolina, “stand your ground” is governed by a statutory use-of-force framework, including the castle doctrine under N.C.G.S. § 14-51.2 and the no-duty-to-retreat provisions in N.C.G.S. § 14-51.3. The castle doctrine law in NC operates through statutory definitions, mandatory presumptions, and burden shifting, not necessarily through the generalized reasonableness…