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NC Bar: Criminal Law and Procedure on the NC Bar

NC Bar · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

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Criminal Law and Procedure on the NC Bar

Criminal Law and Procedure tests common-law doctrine with North Carolina statutory overlays: elements of major crimes, mens rea, complicity, inchoate liability, defenses, and the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments.

Crimes and mens rea

  • Common-law murder: unlawful killing with malice (intent to kill, intent to inflict serious bodily harm, reckless indifference, felony murder). First-degree requires premeditation and deliberation.
  • Voluntary manslaughter: heat of passion on adequate provocation. Involuntary: criminal negligence or misdemeanor manslaughter.
  • Larceny: trespassory taking and carrying away with intent to permanently deprive. Robbery adds force or threat; burglary is breaking and entering a dwelling at night with intent to commit a felony (modern statutes relax the dwelling and nighttime elements).
  • Inchoate: attempt (specific intent plus a substantial step), conspiracy (agreement plus an overt act under modern statutes), solicitation.

Procedure

  • Fourth Amendment: search or seizure needs a warrant, probable cause, or a recognized exception - consent, search incident to arrest, automobile, plain view, exigency, inventory. Standing requires a reasonable expectation of privacy.
  • Fifth: custody plus interrogation triggers Miranda; waiver must be knowing and voluntary, and the right may be invoked at any time.
  • Sixth: counsel attaches at formal proceedings; confrontation reaches testimonial hearsay.

Worked example

D breaks into a closed store at 2 a.m. intending to steal cash, and a clerk inside dies of a heart attack. Burglary is complete at entry with the intent; the death during that felony supports felony murder, which in North Carolina is first-degree murder without proof of premeditation.

Traps

Assuming duress excuses homicide; treating voluntary intoxication as a defense to general-intent crimes (in North Carolina it may negate premeditation, but not malice generally); confusing larceny's intent element with the completed taking; overlooking that conspiracy requires agreement, not completion.