Constitutional protection against double jeopardy is understood to extend no further than the Fifth Amendment requires. Two recent cases from the Court of Appeals, however, seem to find greater double jeopardy protection under state law. In State v. Broadway, No. COA25-1159 (N.C. Ct. App. July 1, 2026), the court ruled a defendant could not be sentenced for two different assaults...
NC Criminal Law
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The court may take judicial notice of adjudicative facts that are not subject to any reasonable dispute if the facts are common knowledge in the jurisdiction or can be easily determined by reference to reliable sources.
A defendant may plead guilty or not guilty, or, with the consent of the prosecutor and judge, may plead “no contest.” See G.S. 15A-1011(a), (b).
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.
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.
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.
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