Under U.S. v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897 (1984), when an officer reasonably relies on a search warrant issued by neutral and impartial magistrate, evidence seized pursuant to the search warrant need not be suppressed even if the search warrant is later determined to be invalid under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Id. at 912. Under State v. Carter, 322 N.C. 709 (1988), the same was not true for violations of Article 1, Sec. 20 of the North Carolina...
NC Criminal Law
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When a statute sets forth disjunctive or alternative ways by which an offense may be committed, a warrant or indictment should charge them conjunctively, linking the alternatives by the word “and” instead of “or”.
Misdemeanors may be charged in an indictment only if the charge is initiated by presentment or if the offense is joined with a charged felony. See G.S. 15A-923; G.S. 7A-271.
The use of the conjunctive “and” in an indictment charging two theories by which offense may be committed does not require the state to prove both theories.
G.S. 15A-134 provides that if a charged offense occurred partly in North Carolina and partly in another state, a person charged with that offense may be tried in North Carolina only if he or she has not already been placed in jeopardy for the same offense by the other state.
Evidence of the victim’s character may be introduced in two circumstances: First, the defendant may introduce evidence of a “pertinent trait” of the victim’s character. G.S. 8C-404(a)(2). The most common example is evidence of the victim’s violent character, offered when the defendant is claiming self-defense. Second, in homicide cases, the state may offer evidence of the victim’s character trait for “peacefulness” to rebut a claim by the defense that the victim was the first aggressor.
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