In national news, prosecutors filed a superseding indictment in the federal criminal case against Donald Trump after the Supreme Court granted former presidents substantial immunity. Court papers say the new indictment “reflects the Government’s efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s holdings and remand instructions.” Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that former presidents have absolute immunity from prosecution for official acts that fall within their “exclusive sphere of constitutional authority” and are presumptively entitled to immunity for all official acts. But that wasn’t the end of the story – on the election subversion charges, the Court sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to “carefully analyze” whether the allegations involve “official conduct” for which the former president would be immune from prosecution. It appears after weeks of consulting with other officials in the Justice Department, special counsel Jack Smith sees a way to proceed in the case, consistent with the Supreme Court’s ruling. Read on for more criminal law news.
Remembering Professor Zijie Yan. This week marks the one-year anniversary since an armed shooter killed Professor Zijie Yan on campus at UNC-Chapel Hill. The person charged in the shooting, graduate student Tailei Qi, has since been deemed unfit for trial, likely due to untreated schizophrenia, and has been committed to Central Regional Hospital in Butner for psychological treatment. Since the shooting, students, faculty and community members called for improvements to the emergency response after the shooting and lockdown led to mass confusion on campus. Changes include enhancing the university’s emergency alert messaging system, Alert Carolina, to provide more routine and informative updates, and adding emergency preparedness training for faculty. In commemoration, the Bell Tower chimed with Hark the Sound at 1:15 p.m. on Wednesday. Further, applied sciences professor Richard Superfine, who interviewed and hired Professor Yan, will craft three benches with his class – one for Yan’s wife and two young daughters, one for Yan’s parents, and one to remain on UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus.
