In State v. Jones, __ N.C. App. __ (November 1, 2011), the NC Court of Appeals issued an important decision regarding the admissibility of NarTest evidence. NarTest is a private company that produces the NarTest NTX 2000 machine which has been used by local law enforcement in several cities and counties in North Carolina to …
Cases
Bullcoming and Blood Alcohol Testing
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ amicus brief in Bullcoming v. New Mexico is an excellent resource for attorneys who want to understand gas chromatography measurements of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) and possible challenges to that technique. Gas Chromatography or Headspace Gas Chromatography is the typical method used in North Carolina when the State …
Update to “Freedom on the line for two North Carolina men”
A three-judge panel in Asheville ruled today that Kenneth Kagonyera and Robert Wilcoxson are innocent. The men who spent ten years in prison were exonerated by the judges’ ruling. This case which involved DNA testing that pointed to another suspect is the third case that has been heard by the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission and the …
Update to “Freedom on the line for two North Carolina men”Read More
Freedom on the line for two North Carolina men
By Charlotte Stewart, UNC Law Student This week a three-judge panel, formed as part of the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission process, is hearing a case which could exonerate two North Carolina men of murder convictions. Kenneth Kagonyera and Robert Wilcoxson were convicted of the murder of Walter Rodney Bowman in 2000 in Buncombe County. Last …
Texas court upholds exclusion of unreliable scent-lineup evidence
A Texas appeals court affirmed the exclusion of evidence that a dog identified a defendant’s scent in a “scent-lineup” in State v. Dominguez. The trial court found that human scent identification by a canine is not sufficiently reliable to be admitted in evidence in a criminal trial, based on the defendant’s motion to suppress and …
Texas court upholds exclusion of unreliable scent-lineup evidenceRead More