John H. Tucker

Had Craig Hicks, the man charged with killing three students in a Chapel Hill apartment complex last month, committed his crime three months ago, we would potentially know more about where he purchased the guns in his arsenal, which consisted of about a dozen shoguns, handguns and rifles. That’s because until this past January, Durham […]

The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which governs North Carolina’s federal courts, reversed a local judge’s decision to impose a life sentence on a drug trafficker. U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle failed to make required factual findings when attributing two drug seizures to the defendant, the circuit judges ruled. Boyle serves on the bench […]

A police officer was conducting surveillance on a suspected drug apartment. A guest walked out of the front door, and police tailed him down the road and pulled him over for a minor infraction. He had drugs on him. Does this give police the right to search the suspected drug apartment? A trial judge said […]

A prosecutor investigating the May 2014 murder of a Chapel Hill man has called for the removal of one of the defense attorneys, citing a potential conflict of interest. Matthew Suczynksi represents Bartholomew Scott, one of two men charged with first-degree murder in the case of 33-year-old shooting victim Lew Hood. In a recent motion, […]

Grant Hayes, the Raleigh musician convicted in late 2013 of killing and dismembering his ex-girlfriend and mother of his children, has lost his appeal for a new trial. Today the North Carolina Court of Appeals published a unanimous opinion rejecting each of Hayes’ legal arguments. The judges declared that Hayes received a fair trial. Hayes […]

Bar fighters, take note: Is a beer mug a deadly weapon? That question will be put before the N.C. Court of Appeals this week, in a case stemming from a bar fight in Lincolntown, northwest of Charlotte. One side says that a beer mug is not by its nature a deadly weapon. The other side […]

A North Carolina inmate has joined the American Humanist Association—a Washington, D.C. nonprofit advocating equality for humanists and atheists—to file a federal lawsuit against the N.C. Department of Public Safety secretary and others for refusing to acknowledge the inmate’s humanism as a formal religion. Kwame Teague, an inmate in Lanesboro Correctional Institution in Polkton, says […]

An N.C. Senate judiciary committee is scheduled today to consider a bill that would allow magistrates to opt out of presiding over marriages based on “sincerely held religious” objections. If the bill in its current form is passed, magistrates could opt out of providing marriage services for six-month periods if they object to same-sex marriages, […]

Duke University’s Appellate Litigation Clinic, which relies on the work of law school students, won an appeal brought to the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers North Carolina. The case centers on what’s known in legal terms as “curtilage” — the land immediately surrounding and associated with homes, such as an outdoor patio, […]