First-degree murder (capital/death)

Whether tobacco companies must continue payments to non-quota farmers under a private Trust Agreement predating the enactmen of federal buy-out legislation implementing company-funded payments to tobacco quota holders and producers of quota tobacco

Whether rules of civil procedure apply to court proceedings to enforce a summons issued by N.C. Revenue Dep't

Whether covenants imposing service charges on property owners are 'reasonable' and 'sufficiently definite'

Whether N.C.G.S. � 14-2 (1974) defines a life sentence as an eighty year sentence for all purposes and not just for parole eligibility

Competence to stand trial

Probable cause or reasonable suspicion to conduct warrantless search of defendant's vehicle based on information provided by an informant; motion to suppress evidence seized

Constitutionality of N.C.G.S. Sec. 115C-431 procedures to resolve funding disputes between local school boards and county commissioners

Whether 'one person, one vote' requirement established in Stephenson v. Bartlett applies to superior court judicial districts

Constitutionality of N.C.G.S. � 14-415.1 amendment barring all felons from possessing firearms anywhere

Unemployment insurance eligibility; whether leaving a job to accept early retirement benefits under a company downsizing program is a disqualifying act under N.C.G.S. � 96-14(1)

Whether a juvenile petition alleging abuse and neglect can be later amended to add newly discovered allegations of sexual abuse against a child named in the petition; application of N.C.G.S. � 7B-800

N.C.G.S. � 153A-344(b); whether issuance of a building permit also conferred a statutory vested rifht to conduct a mining operation on the same property; application of Robins v. Town of Hillsborough

Felony sentencing; whether trial court's unilateral finding of an aggravating factor was harmless error when the same evidence was used to prove an element of an offense

First-degree murder (capital/death)

First-degree murder (capital/death)

Whether by failing to object at trial defendant waived appellate review of the trial court's instructions to a single juror in violation of Article I, Section 24 of the North Carolina Constitution