A defendant who sent gift cards to an undercover agent he believed was a member of ISIS was guilty of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization where his collection of Nazi paraphernalia suggested a predisposition to ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Practice

Although a burgled storage shed was on the victim’s “family farm” and within 200 yards of the house he shared with his parents, since the shed was not on the parcel owned by the victim’s parents but was instead on ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice South Carolina Court of Appeals

South Carolina has not addressed whether logs from the National Precursor Log Exchange (NPLEx, an electronic database housing all pseudoephedrine purchases in 29 states) meet the business records exception to the rule against hearsay. Since the NPLEx records are created ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice South Carolina Court of Appeals

A Virginia reckless driving conviction couldn’t automatically be the basis for a habitual-offender suspension of respondent’s driver’s license because, while South Carolina only has one definition of reckless driving, Virginia has 14. One of those is speeding in excess of ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

State v. Haygood (Lawyers Weekly No. 010-096-15, 3 pp.) (Per Curiam) Appealed from Orangeburg County Circuit Court (Edgar Dickson, J.) On writ of certiorari to the Court of Appeals. Substituted opinion. S.C. S.Ct. Holding: The recording of the proceeding before ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

State v. Manning No video recording of defendant’s conduct at the incident site was required because police Corporal Hallman was conducting an investigation of a traffic accident and defendant was arrested at the hospital.

Tagged with: Criminal Practice Jury Instructions

State v. Daniels Where the trial judge instructed the jury that it and the judge were acting for the community, this charge was not akin to an improper Golden Rule argument. The charge given in this case did not ask the jury to consider the victim’s perspective.

Tagged with: Appeals Burden of Proof Criminal Practice Jury & Jurors

State v. Black The trial court erred when it admitted evidence of a defense witness’s 1987 manslaughter convictions for which he was imprisoned until 1993. These convictions did not rest on dishonest conduct and are not particularly probative of the specific trait of truthfulness. Nevertheless, the error was harmless.

Tagged with: Criminal Practice CSC with a Minor Evidence Harmless Error

Moore v. State Even though petitioner’s trial counsel testified that petitioner definitely wanted a bench trial, counsel had little recollection of his discussions with petitioner about a jury trial versus a bench trial, and petitioner testified that he wanted a jury trial.

Tagged with: Constitutional Criminal Practice Ineffective Assistance of Counsel PCR Waiver

U.S. v. Wooden The record does not support a district court’s rejection of civil commitment for a sex offender, and the 4th Circuit orders reconsideration; the offender has a long history of acting on his pedophilic urges, has been convicted or adjudicated delinquent five times, has admitted he offended many more times than he was caught and has been resistant to treatment.

Tagged with: Civil Commitment Criminal Practice Sex Offender