Let me rant for a moment. I’m getting a little tired of arguing basic foundational legal principles in North Carolina District Courts and having them be ignored. Take, for instance, the vaunted Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus test, the MOST RELIABLE TEST ™ in the land for the detection of impairment. The most scientifically RIGOROUS (so we’re […]
Are You Showing Contempt? I’m Doing My Best to Hide it
In other news today, North Korea’s dictator ordered the execution of a government official after an investigation into the official’s “sitting posture at a parliamentary meeting.” Before you shake your head at the sad fate Kim Yong-sin, executed by firing squad for bad posture, consider the outrage this week over Colin Kaepernick, who decided not […]
Confusions People Make: Don’t talk to Police
An actual exchange I recently had with an otherwise smart non-lawyer who is confused about whether he should talk to police. Reproduced with his permission. SMART GUY: What if they say they’re interviewing you as a witness? Do they never take mere witnesses into the interrogation room? Genuinely curious, not challenging your expertise. DAMON CHETSON: […]
Talking and Lying to Police in a Criminal Investigation
When you least expect it a knock may come on your door from a police officer, investigator, agent, deputy, or other law enforcement officer who wants to “ask a few questions.” Whatever the title the person might carry, the decision you make in the next few seconds could change the course of your life. North […]
Shaken Baby Syndrome – The Tide May Be Turning
In 2013, I tried a shaken baby syndrome case in which the jury came back, finding my client not guilty of all charges. The case was harrowing and high stakes. Had she been convicted, my client would’ve faced something on the order of six to seven years in prison. That was before North Carolina increased […]
Dennis Hastert: A Sexually Violent Predator?
Former U.S. Rep. Dennis Hastert may have inadvertently “Adam Walshed” himself when he pled guilty earlier this year and was sentenced last week to federal prison for having “structured” payments and withdrawals from his bank accounts in order to pay hush money to men he had molested as boys. While most of the commentary has […]
A Warrant for your DWI Blood
Sec. 20-16.2(b) purportedly allowed an officer to obtain blood from an unconscious person without the requirement that the officer first get a warrant. That provision was struck down last week in State v. Romano, in which an officer obtained excess blood drawn from a patient/DWI suspect at the hospital without having first gotten a warrant. […]
Criminalizing the Invocation of your Fourth Amendment Rights
North Carolina, like many states, has implied consent laws that penalize people for refusing to blow into a machine upon request from a police officer who suspects they may have been driving while impaired. In North Carolina, the penalty is a civil penalty – a person’s license will be revoked for one year even though […]
A Rant: The Problem(s) with the Federal Criminal System
After a frustrating week, I’m going to lay it out for you about how our federal criminal justice system is, in particular, screwed up: Overbroad federal criminal statutes create ambiguity about what is a crime. Federal statutes have what I call “generational” sentencing ranges. 0 to 25, 5 to 40, 0 to 10 or 15 […]
Duress and DWIs in North Carolina
For hundreds of years, American and, before that, English law has recognized the defense of duress (also called, coercion, or necessity). A duress defense is an affirmative defense. Usually the defendant acknowledges that a crime was committed, but asserts that there was a justification to commit the crime. Unlike an excuse – say, for instance, […]