North Carolina’s highest court has sided with Currituck County in an occupancy tax dispute, upheld convictions in two criminal cases involving marijuana odor, affirmed 2023 Duke Energy rate hikes challenged by the state attorney general, censured a Wake County judge, and ruled that a convicted murderer loses his right of direct appeal to the high court once he’s off death row.
A case at the North Carolina Supreme Court could clarify when an odor allows law enforcement officers to conduct a warrantless search.
Groups representing North Carolina’s district attorneys, sheriffs, and police chiefs all hope the North Carolina Supreme Court will uphold law enforcement searches based on the presence of marijuana odor and a “cover scent.”
The North Carolina Supreme Court will hear a case challenging a 2021 Greensboro police traffic stop search based on officers smelling the odor of marijuana and a "cover scent." Defendant Tyron Lamont Dobson argues he never could have been convicted of a gun crime without the objectionable search.
