by Michelle Sparrow | Apr 14, 2012 | Criminal Defense, Criminal Law Blog
An arrest for a minor offense is usually handled quickly. Most of the 700,000 arrests on nonviolent, non-drug-related criminal charges every year go right to a judge, and the suspects are released immediately. If a judge is not available, though, the suspects are held... by Michelle Sparrow | Apr 13, 2012 | Criminal Defense, Criminal Law Blog
We want to finish up our discussion of the U.S. Supreme Court case about strip searches and Fourth Amendment rights before we talk about the Trayvon Martin “stand your ground” case. In our last post, we went over the majority opinion that said the strip... by Michelle Sparrow | Apr 7, 2012 | Criminal Defense, Criminal Law Blog
North Carolina’s defense attorneys and prosecutors alike were probably taken by surprise earlier this week when they learned the U.S. Supreme Court has decided that a detainee in a county jail may be subjected to a strip search regardless of the severity of the... by Michelle Sparrow | Nov 22, 2011 | Criminal Defense, Criminal Law Blog
We are finishing up our discussion of a case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court that addresses privacy and GPS tracking devices. The case involved a suspect in a drug trafficking investigation. Police placed a GPS tracking device on his car and followed his... by Michelle Sparrow | Nov 18, 2011 | Criminal Defense, Criminal Law Blog
We have been talking about a criminal case argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. The defendant in the underlying case claims that police violated his Fourth Amendment right to privacy when they planted a GPS device on his car and tracked his comings and goings for...