This post summarizes published criminal law and related cases released by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals during April 2025. Cases of potential interest to state practitioners are summarized monthly. Previous summaries of Fourth Circuit cases are available here. No…

Today is GiveUNC day, the university’s annual one-day fundraising event for alumni, faculty, staff, supporters, and fans of Carolina to contribute to UNC programs and causes that they find most meaningful and impactful. UNC Chapel Hill is truly a unique…

I have been covering developments around the legalization of hemp in North Carolina since 2018. Never did I suspect then that I would still be working on the topic all this time later, but here we are. My last post…

The Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution limits the use of testimonial hearsay statements by an unavailable witness at a criminal trial, as does its state counterpart in Article I, Sec. 23 of the North Carolina…

We have covered the extensive post-conviction and appellate proceedings of Richard Glossip’s death sentence many times before on the blog (most recently here). Glossip has been on death row in Oklahoma since his 1998 conviction for allegedly orchestrating the brutal…

This post summarizes published criminal law cases released by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals during January 2024. Cases of potential interest to state practitioners are summarized monthly. Previous summaries of Fourth Circuit cases are available here. Defendant abandoned his…

This post summarizes a criminal law decision published by the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 21, 2025. Due process protection against highly prejudicial and irrelevant evidence was clearly established; denial of habeas petition reversed Andrew v. White, 604 U.S. ___;…