Court of Appeals Rules that Ignorance of the (Pseudoephedrine) Law Is an Excuse

Last week, the North Carolina Court of Appeals reversed a defendant’s conviction under G.S. 90-95(d1)(1)(c), which makes it unlawful to “[p]ossess a pseudoephedrine product if [a] person has a prior conviction for the possession or manufacture of methamphetamine.” The court ruled that the defendant’s “due process rights under the United States Constitution were violated by his conviction of a strict liability offense criminalizing otherwise innocuous and lawful behavior without providing him notice that a previously lawful act had been transformed into a felony for the subset of convicted felons to which he belonged.” In other words, the defendant’s apparent ignorance of the law excused his violation of it. Background. Austin Miller was convicted in 2012 of “possession of a methamphetamine precursor and maintaining a vehicle or dwelling for sale or delivery of a controlled substance,” and was sentenced to probation. Effective December 1, 2013, the General Assembly enacted G.S. 90-95(d1)(1)(c), making it illegal for Miller to possess any product containing pseudoephedrine, which may be used to relieve cold and allergy symptoms, but also may be used to manufacture methamphetamine. On January 5, 2014, Miller purchased “one 3.6 gram box of allergy and congestion relief medicine, a pseudoephedrine product,” from Walmart in Boone, North Carolina. Based on the purchase, he was arrested and charged with unlawful possession of pseudoephedrine. Trial court proceedings. Miller moved to dismiss, arguing that the statute was unconstitutional as applied to him because “the State failed to provide him any notice of the statute and its implications.” The [...]