NC Criminal Law
This post summarizes published criminal opinions from the Supreme Court of North Carolina released on August 14, 2026. The court released twelve such opinions on that day, some quite lengthy. Therefore, this post summarizes the first six opinions. The remaining opinions will be summarized in a forthcoming post.
(1) In a child sexual abuse trial, any improper vouching by expert witnesses did not rise to the level of plain...
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.
If the defendant appeals from a conviction arising out of a plea agreement in district court, the superior court has jurisdiction over misdemeanors that were dismissed, reduced, or modified pursuant to the agreement. See G.S. 15A-1431(b); 7A-271(b).
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.
An acquittal under the Double Jeopardy Clause includes a dismissal of a charge for insufficient evidence or an appellate court’s reversal of a conviction for insufficient evidence.
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.