In Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prevents prosecutors in criminal cases from exercising peremptory challenges to excuse prospective jurors solely on account of their race. As illustrated by State v. Campbell COA18-998-2, filed 21 July 2020, application of that 1986 decision is not easy.… Continue Reading
The Petition Tracker has been updated with the Supreme Court’s most recent allowed petitions for discretionary review. Although there were some special orders, the Court only allowed two petitions outright. One arose from the Industrial Commission, and the other involves the Raleigh Housing Authority.
The Petition Tracker has also been updated to include the Court’s merits decisions on petitions that were granted.… Continue Reading
The future is now, and the NCBA Appellate Practice Section wants to help you be ready. With the state’s appellate courts, and other courts around the country, going to remote videoconference hearings because of the Coronavirus pandemic, a special program has been put together for May 27. It is described as follows:
… Continue ReadingAppellate Practice Section Panel
Preparing for WebEx Oral Arguments in NC Appellate CourtsYou are invited to join the Appellate Practice Section for a Zoom panel to learn about preparing for and presenting remote video oral argument in our NC Appellate Courts via WebEx.
Last year, I blogged about State v. Ellis where a passing motorist gave a Highway Patrol trooper the middle-finger salute and was arrested for his trouble. A divided Court of Appeals allowed the defendant’s conviction to stand. The case made it to the Supreme Court, which recently issued an opinion reversing the conviction.
A quick recap of our story. A trooper was assisting motorists when he noticed that the passenger in a car driving by had extended his hand out the window and was waving. … Continue Reading
As previously reported here, the Supreme Court of North Carolina at the end of March issued an order extending all appellate court deadlines falling between March 27 and April 30, 2020 for 60 days.
As a service to the bar, the Clerks of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals have posted answers to some of the most frequently asked questions they have received about the order. … Continue Reading
In State v. Golder, 79PA18, filed 3 April 2020, the Supreme Court of North Carolina provided helpful guidance on a vexing issue relating to error preservation: Does a general motion to dismiss preserve for appellate review arguments relating to insufficiency of the evidence? At the same time, the Court resolved a split on the issue in the jurisprudence of the Court of Appeals.… Continue Reading
Today, the Supreme Court of North Carolina gave some grace on appellate filings impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. The order issued by the Court does three things:
On Tuesday, Troy posted on the uncertainty surrounding how North Carolina appeals are being impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. On Thursday, the Chief Justice issued a catastrophic conditions order extending deadlines and other court proceedings for one month. Notably, this extension order does not apply to documents filed or acts to be done in the appellate courts. (But see final two paragraphs below).… Continue Reading
Last Friday, Chief Justice Beasley of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, held a press conference on the State judiciary’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Most of the announcements during the conference focused on the trial courts. But there was also some information given during the press conference, and since then, about how the appellate courts are dealing with the pandemic.… Continue Reading
Out of a total of 24 opinions, the Supreme Court’s most recent set of opinions included nine criminal cases, three terminations of parental rights, and six direct appeals from Business Court decisions.
Of those six Business Court appeals, three were decided with written opinions and three were decided per curiam. What is noticeable, however, is that the three per curiam opinions were not one-pagers.… Continue Reading