NorthCarolinaLaw

https://edelsteinpayne.com/criminal-defense NC Court of Appeals Confirms No Duty to Retreat Prior to Self-Defense Originally Posted by Sean Cecil Jun 07, 2017 (0 Comments) North Carolina law does not require retreat before use of self-defense. "Perfect" self-defense is a defense against criminal charges; "imperfect" may be used as a mitigating factor in sentencing. Perfect self-defense requires all four of the following elements: (1) It appeared to defendant and he believed it to be necessary to use force to save himself from harm;  (2) Defendant's belief was reasonable in that the circumstances as they appeared to him at the time were sufficient to create such a belief in the mind of a person of ordinary firmness; (3) Defendant was not the aggressor in bringing on the affray, i.e., he did not aggressively and willingly enter into the fight without legal excuse or provocation; and (4) Defendant did not use excessive force.  Imperfect sel...

https://edelsteinpayne.com Revisiting the 4th Circuit's Recent Taser Excessive Force Case Originally Posted by Sean Cecil Mar 23, 2016  (0 Comments) Back in January, I wrote about the 4th Circuit's precedent-setting excessive force case,  Estate of Armstrong v. Village of Pinehurst.  Since that time, I have had a chance to more thoroughly parse the decision issued by Judges , Keenan, Thacker, and Wilkinson(concurring), and decided a more thorough case summary which includes important details is warranted.  The case began as an appeal of the trial court's order granting qualified immunity summary judgment on Plaintiff estate's excessive force claim. Mr. Armstrong was bi-polar and paranoid schizophrenic; during nasty episode his sister convinced him to go to hospital, but he became scared and fled the Emergency Department. The examining doctor deemed Armstrong a danger to himself and issued involuntary commitment (IVC) paper...