Criminal Law in North Carolina

The School of Government provides the following services and resources to North Carolina prosecutors:

• North Carolina Prosecutors' Resource Online (NC PRO): For many years, the School of Government published the North Carolina Prosecutors’ Trial Manual, a 1,000+ page resource that identified, explained, and expounded upon the criminal procedure that governs the prosecution of crimes in North Carolina. The Administrative Office of the Courts provided every prosecutor with a copy of this important manual, but the fifth and final edition was published in 2012.
  
  Rather than simply update and reissue the existing manual, the School of Government launched NC PRO in October of 2018. NC PRO is a digital knowledgebase that not only contains updated information about criminal procedure based on the prior Trial Manual, but also incorporates additional reference materials and provides links to related blog posts, articles, and other online resources. Verified North Carolina prosecutors can create an account and log in to access supplemental materials such as sample motions and legal memos.
   
• Arrest Warrant and Indictment Forms: These forms contain recommended charging language for several hundred North Carolina offenses. To order a paper copy of the forms, please see Jeffrey B. Welty & Chris Tyner, Arrest Warrant and Indictment Forms (2019 Edition).
   
• Practical Skills for New Prosecutors: Iin conjunction with the Conference of District Attorneys, the School of Government offers a five-day training course for new prosecutors every year.
   
• Other Prosecutor Training: School of Government criminal law faculty members regularly teach in training seminars for prosecutors, including the summer and fall association meetings, and they are available by telephone and email for consultation about a wide variety of criminal law issues and cases. The faculty and staff listed below are particularly interested in meeting the training needs of prosecutors:
  
  
• Shea Denning, Robert W. Bradshaw Jr. Distinguished Term Professor of Public Law and Government; Director, North Carolina Judicial College
• Jeff Welty, Professor of Public Law and Government
• Joseph Hyde, Assistant Professor of Criminal Law and Procedure
   
• Other Criminal Law Resources: In addition to NC PRO and Arrest Warrant and Indictment Forms, the School also offers North Carolina Crimes; Arrest, Search, and Investigation in North Carolina; the North Carolina Criminal Law Blog; and many other tools and publications for prosecutors and others in the criminal justice system. Visit NC PRO or the Criminal Law Homepage to find more information about these additional resources.