For the past few years, we have used this blog as a forum to discuss a number of different aspects of criminal law. We have discussed sobriety checkpoints; we have talked about football players being arrested for driving while intoxicated. We have talked about theft and murder and drug crimes. We have talked about exonerations, expungements and dropped charges.
Thanks to some terrific reporting by the Raleigh News & Observer, we have looked at the problems with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation’s crime lab, with the SBI’s questionable — if not illegal — practices and the challenges the state has faced while trying to clean up the mess. We have followed the stories of the agency and individual analysts as mistakes became public.
We have tried to follow the ups and downs of the Innocence Inquiry Commission, just as we have touched on the stories of men convicted and incarcerated long ago for crimes they did not commit. We also followed the General Assembly’s debates about the Racial Justice Act.
We have looked at structured sentencing and parole. We have talked about U.S. Supreme Court decisions and how those rulings have changed the criminal justice system in this state.
We pay attention to these things and share this information for a number of reasons. We certainly want to bring important developments in the criminal justice system to the community’s attention. We certainly want to share useful information with our readers — information about how other people, people not so different from us and our neighbors, have fared with law enforcement and the courts.
We also want to share information about criminal law in terms that everyone can understand. We want to help members of the community — anyone who is confused about his own situation, anyone with a loved one that is in trouble with the law, anyone who needs help with a criminal matter — know that they have somewhere to turn.
The Sparrow Law Firm has the skills, experience and resources to help people in Wake County and beyond who find themselves in a jam. Please contact us if you have a question about your case.