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...
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.
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).
A criminal charge contained in a pleading must be sufficiently definite to identify the offense, enable the defendant to prepare his or her defense, bar a subsequent prosecution for the same offense, and enable the court to impose judgment.
Even if he does not testify, the defendant may offer evidence of a “pertinent trait” of his character. G.S. 8C-404(a)(1).