So you’ve been appointed a juvenile charged with first-degree murder, but you didn’t handle the transfer from juvenile court – now what?
Locate and Visit/Contact Your Client
Remember, if your client is under 18, they will be housed in a juvenile detention center. There are twelve juvenile detention centers spread out across the state. Make sure to have regular contact with your client – it’s confusing when the first set of hearings is so fast, yet the rest of the case can take months if not years. Contact with your youth client builds trust and credibility.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00CriminalJusticehttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngCriminalJustice2022-11-28 11:52:572022-11-28 11:54:16So You’ve Been Appointed to a Juvenile Charged with First-Degree Murder
In December, the North Carolina Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice delivered recommendations to Gov. Roy Cooper to make the criminal justice system and law enforcement system fairer to Black people and communities of color. Now, we are in the next phase of our work – turning these recommendations into reality to make North Carolina safer for every person.
The Task Force was led by Attorney General Josh Stein and Justice Anita Earls and included North Carolinians with a range of experiences with the systems that shape, and so often have failed, our communities. Our 125 recommendations span a breadth of criminal justice issues – some well-known, some not – that call for real, meaningful change to address racial inequities.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00CriminalJusticehttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngCriminalJustice2021-03-26 12:46:152021-03-26 14:07:33Addressing Racial Inequities in North Carolina’s Criminal Justice System
In 2019, North Carolina raised the age of juvenile jurisdiction from 16 to 18. This law, which was in effect for a hundred years, addressed the maximum age at which a person would be charged in juvenile court rather than adult court. Much attention was paid to the fact that North Carolina was one of the last states to automatically criminalize 16- and 17-year-olds for any offense. But did you know that North Carolina is currently the only state in the country to charge youth as young as six years old?
The minimum age of jurisdiction is the youngest age a child may be charged with a crime. Though many (29) states have no minimum age, North Carolina has the distinction of being the state with the youngest minimum age. There doesn’t appear to exist any legislative history on why this age was set, so it’s difficult to determine the policy rationale behind setting the age of six.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00CriminalJusticehttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngCriminalJustice2021-02-12 09:51:372021-02-12 09:51:37Reconsidering North Carolina’s Minimum Age of Jurisdiction
This blog post summarizes some of the recent activities of the newly formed North Carolina Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice (“TREC”) chaired by N.C. Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls and N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein. The TREC consists of 24 individuals representing policy makers, civil rights advocates, judges, defense attorneys, prosecutors and law enforcement officers. The full membership can be found at the TREC’s website at www.ncdoj.gov/TREC.
The TREC has had two meetings and one public comment session. The first meeting on July 10, 2020, included an introduction by Gov. Roy Cooper. Justice Earls and Attorney General Stein explained how the TREC would accomplish its work. The members then each shared what they hoped they could contribute to the TREC and what perspective they hoped they could gain from the TREC to share with their organizations and to encourage and enact further meaningful change to the criminal justice system.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00CriminalJusticehttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngCriminalJustice2020-07-31 12:27:122020-07-31 12:28:34The N.C. Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice
Tomorrow, July 10, will be the first convening of the Governor’s Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice, which I am co-chairing with Justice Anita Earls.
This Task Force has been created to examine our criminal justice system through a lens of racial equity. In North Carolina, we have long sought to improve our criminal justice system. Now, we have the opportunity—the imperative—to explicitly consider racial equity as we continue this effort.
The inequities that African Americans experience—whether it’s in the economy, health care, our schools, or the criminal justice system—are pervasive, just as they are wrong. Even today, African Americans are suffering death at a greatly disproportionate rate from COVID-19 due to longstanding inequities.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00CriminalJusticehttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngCriminalJustice2020-07-09 18:24:452020-08-12 17:20:39N.C. Marks an Important Moment for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice
Chief Justice Cheri Beasley has issued an order extending Emergency Directives 9-16 through July 20, 2020.
Relevant to criminal practitioners, these Emergency Directives provide:
No sessions of court may be scheduled if doing so would contravene current public health guidelines. Remote hearings should be used to the greatest extent possible. (Emergency Directive 9.)
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00CriminalJusticehttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngCriminalJustice2020-06-25 11:15:072020-06-25 11:47:49Chief Justice Beasley Extends Certain Emergency Directives Through July 20
Some time has passed since the initial flurry of court orders modifying deadlines, postponing in-person hearings, and setting guidelines for remote hearings. In an attempt to stay up to date with the latest orders and announcements from the state and federal courts within North Carolina as those courts begin to contemplate reopening, here is a compilation of the most recent items within each jurisdiction. A high-level summary is included below each order, but the specific language of each order should be carefully reviewed alongside any additional orders issued by a presiding judge in a particular case.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00CriminalJusticehttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngCriminalJustice2020-05-19 15:40:522020-05-21 17:38:21Court Reopening Plans, Video Conferencing Rules, and Other COVID-19 Updates
On April 13, 2020, Chief Justice Beasley issued another order further extending certain District and Superior Court filing deadlines and limitations periods into June 2020. Until this order was issued, these deadlines were set to expire this Friday, April 17, pursuant to Justice Beasley’s March 19 order. The key provisions of the latest order are below.
Extension of Time and Periods of Limitation
All pleadings, motions, notices, and other documents and papers due to be filed in any county on or after March 16, 2020 and before the close of business June 1, 2020 in civil actions, criminal actions, estates, and special proceedings shall be deemed to be timely filed if filed before the close of business on June 1, 2020.
All “other acts that were or are due to be done” in any county on or after March 16, 2020 and before the close of business on June 1, 2020 in civil actions, criminal actions, estates, and special proceedings will be timely if done before close of business on June 1, 2020.
This order does not apply to filings or acts due in the N.C. Appellate Courts.
As reiterated by Chief Business Court Judge Bledsoe’s April 14, 2020 Order, Chief Justice Beasley’s April 13, 2020 Order applies to all actions pending before the N.C. Business Court.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00CriminalJusticehttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngCriminalJustice2020-04-14 13:32:062020-04-15 09:21:22Justice Beasley Continues Trial Court Deadlines into June
I know it is difficult keeping track of all the moving dates and deadlines. For your convenience, here is a chart with all the current extensions. Below the chart is an update about Justice Beasley’s latest order pushing out state trial court proceedings into June.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00CriminalJusticehttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngCriminalJustice2020-04-03 16:10:172020-04-03 17:43:41What are all those dates again? And another extension from Justice Beasley
With coronavirus infections multiplying exponentially around the globe, countries, states, and localities are taking action to slow the spread. This update does not attempt to recount all that has changed since my last post. In particular, I do not catalogue all the state and local stay-at-home orders that have been enacted—though the North Carolina Judicial Branch’s COVID-19 Resource Page appears to have aggregated them all. Rather, I focus just on recent developments involving North Carolina state and federal courts and of particular interest to criminal justice practitioners.
[Note: This post was updated on April 3, 2020, as reflected below.]
NC State Courts
As reported earlier, Chief Justice Cheri Beasley previously entered an order extending filing deadlines and certain limitations periods in the trial courts through April 17, 2020. After some initial debate about whether Justice Beasley’s order applied in the Business Court, Chief Business Court Judge Louis Bledsoe answered that question in the affirmative, by order entered May 23. There was no doubt that Justice Beasley’s March 19 order did not apply to filings due in the appellate courts. Late last week, however, Justice Beasley entered another order extending all appellate court deadlines that fall between March 27 and April 30, 2020, for 60 days. The March 27 order also encourages electronic filing and credits back secure-leave scheduled in April and May 2020.
By Eric Zogry
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