The constitutional right to a jury trial comes from the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It states that “[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury….” But what happens when a juror
The chance of a “perfect trial” is slim to none. Whether it’s a sleeping juror, a lack of record or something else, anything close to a perfect trial is hard to come by. And that’s true even when the wrong juror convicts you.
In an opinion authored by Justice Anita Earls, the North Carolina Supreme Court held that retroactive application of the General Assembly’s repeal of the NC Racial Justice Act violated the constitutional prohibition on ex post facto laws.
Everyone knows the court reporter’s purpose: they record what happens in court. Then, when an issue occurs down the road, everyone can return to that record. Yet some states don’t require a record of jury selection.
Reuters did a special report on the disparity between the often harsh penalties that judges impose on a daily basis and the significantly less harsh penalties they face for their own wrongdoing in America’s justice system. This leads to an important question: Are the consequences
With the General Assembly’s repeal of the Racial Justice Act, defendants don’t have a clear path to challenge death sentences on racial grounds. And, with the General Assembly backtracking on previous steps it took to fix that problem, it’s unlikely that North Carolina residents will
In Dec. 2020, outgoing U.S. Representative Justin Amash (L-MI) introduced the Civil Asset Forfeiture Elimination Act. The goal of the act is simple: “repeal civil asset forfeiture nationwide.”
The attorney-client privilege is the oldest and most sacred of all legal privileges. HR 5545 preserves the attorney-client privilege.