While a prosecutor in a criminal trial may comment on a defendant’s failure to produce witnesses or evidence to contradict or refute the State’s case, a prosecutor may not make any reference to or comment on a defendant’s failure to testify. Such remarks violate both a defendant’s federal and state constitutional rights not to be compelled to give self-incriminating evidence (see U.S. Const. Amend. V, N.C. Const. art. I, § 23) and...
NC Criminal Law
on Tuesday, April 30th, 2024
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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 a defendant pleads guilty to an H or I felony in district court, is placed on probation, and is subsequently charged with violating that probation, the superior court has jurisdiction to hear the violation. But with the consent of the state and the defendant, the district court may hear the violation. G.S. 7A-271(e).
Prosecution of the defendant for an infraction will bar a subsequent prosecution for a more serious offense arising out of the same conduct.
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”.
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).
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