Until recently, a single judge sitting on a panel of the North Carolina Court of Appeals could tee up an issue for the Supreme Court of North Carolina simply by filing a dissenting opinion. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7A-30(2) allowed...more
You can hit your snooze button a little later on Tuesdays. Effective January 1, 2025, the Court of Appeals’ scheduled filing days for opinions will be the first and third Wednesday of the month, Since the Court will be...more
A dissenting opinion in the Court of Appeals has long been a litigant’s Golden Ticket, at least until a recent statutory change. The mere existence of the dissent bestowed an automatic right of appeal to the Supreme Court of...more
In State v. Richardson, 272A14, filed 1 September 2023, the Supreme Court of North Carolina reviewed the conviction and sentencing of the defendant. The evidence indicated the gruesome and protracted abuse of a child that...more
An intriguing by-play between judges on the North Carolina Court of Appeals recently emerged into public view in the case of State v. Calvin Lee Miller. After shooting his wife, Miller was convicted of attempted...more
Under Appellate Rule 10, the general rule is that appellate courts only decide issues properly raised, argued, and decided in the trial tribunal. But exceptions to this general rule exist for issues considered so fundamental...more
North Carolina General Statute § 7A-30(2) allows for an appeal as of right to the Supreme Court of North Carolina from “any decision of the Court of Appeals rendered in a case…in which there is a dissent.” Seems pretty...more
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...more