On Wednesday this week, Austin Thompson entered guilty pleas to five counts of murder and other charges stemming from a 2022 mass shooting in a Raleigh neighborhood. The defendant, who was 15 years old at the time, killed five people, including his brother and an off-duty Raleigh police officer. He also wounded another officer and another civilian before he apparently shot himself in the head and was apprehended. According to defense counsel, the defendant’s resulting brain injury has made...
NC Criminal Law
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A prosecution in superior court must be by indictment, although a noncapital defendant may waive the right to an indictment and be tried on an information. See G.S. 15A-642; -943.
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.
A prosecutor’s failure to sign an indictment does not invalidate the indictment. G.S. 15A-644(a)(4).
A judge may not constitutionally impose a suspended sentence for a misdemeanor conviction unless the defendant was represented by counsel or properly waived counsel.
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.
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