NC Criminal Law
Magistrates are often referred to as the “first face” of the judicial system. They are critical to upholding the due process rights of North Carolina’s citizens. One of the best parts of my job is the opportunity to train magistrates in their civil law duties.
Magistrates must complete 12 hours of training each year, which includes annual instruction in seven required subjects. They include (1) setting conditions of pretrial release, (2) impaired driving laws, (3) issuing criminal...
Each separate offense charged against a defendant must be pled in a separate pleading, or in a separate count within a single pleading. See G.S. 15A-924(a)(2).
Two or more offenses may be joined for trial when the offenses are based on the same act or transaction or on a series of acts or transactions connected together or constituting parts of a single scheme or plan. See G.S. 15A-926(a).
The state must give the defendant, at the beginning of jury selection, a written list of the names of all witnesses whom the state reasonably expects to call during the trial.
In district court, jeopardy attaches once the court begins to hear evidence, which occurs when the first witness is sworn. In superior court, jeopardy attaches once the jury is sworn and impaneled.
A defendant has a Sixth Amendment right to counsel during interrogation by an officer or an informant about a pending charge after adversarial judicial proceedings for that charge have begun.