NC Criminal Law

Jamie Markham on Friday, May 29th, 2026

Last Friday, violence erupted outside the Wake County Courthouse when Gwendolyn White reportedly shot at two lawyers, Mary Harris and Jeffrey Whitley. The attack happened after a tense hearing at which the lawyers were representing the Rolesville Police Department in a matter involving a request for officer-worn body camera footage. The News & Observer published an audio recording...

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An indigent defendant who has been formally charged has a right to counsel at a pretrial lineup or other identification procedure at which defendant’s presence is required.

If evidence is excluded by the trial court, the proponent of the evidence generally must provide an adequate offer of proof regarding the nature of the excluded evidence in order to argue on appeal that the evidence should have been allowed. See G.S. 8C-103(a)(2).

The key question for double jeopardy analysis is whether each offense requires proof of an element that is not contained in the other — if not, they are the same offense and double jeopardy bars a successive prosecution.

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.

A judge may accept an Alford plea, in which a defendant pleads guilty but does not admit committing the offense and protests his or her innocence, if the record strongly supports the defendant’s guilt and the defendant intelligently concludes that it is in his or her interest to enter such a plea. The consent of the prosecutor is not required.