Several chapters in the criminal law and evidence sections of the Superior Court Judges’ Benchbook recently have been updated. Among those chapters is Indictments, written by Joe Hyde, which begins by noting the significance of the North Carolina Supreme Court’s decision in State v. Singleton, 386 N.C. 183 (2024). Singleton, as you may recall, concluded that the...
NC Criminal Law
on Monday, April 6th, 2026
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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”.
There is no double jeopardy bar to a second trial when a charge is dismissed because an indictment or other criminal pleading is fatally defective.
Venue to try an accessory after the fact is proper in any county where the principal could be prosecuted or in the county where the defendant committed acts that form the basis of the charge of accessory after the fact.
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.
If a case is transferred to another district for prosecution, the prosecutor of the originating district must continue to prosecute the case, unless the prosecutor of the receiving district consents to the prosecution. See G.S. 15A-133(d).
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