BILLS ENACTED - 2009

 

Scroll down to view Senate and House bills. Go to the legislative web site at www.ncleg.net to read the full text and see voting records on bills.

S461 - Racial Justice Act - Sen. McKissick and Reps. Womble, Parmon, Luebke and Harrison. This historic piece of legislation finally makes it clear that no person in North Carolina shall be sentenced to death or executed on the basis of race. Defendants in death penalty cases will finally be able to obtain relief on all proven evidence of racial bias – including statistical information – that may be present in a case. They will not be released if they prove that racial bias has been a factor in a death sentence, they will be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The prosecution may also present evidence to demonstrate that racial bias was not a factor. Congratulations to all who worked on this important piece of legislation.

S 464 - Prevent Racial Profiling - McKissick - Requires law enforcement officers making stops to be assigned an anonymous identifying number to allow transparent agency practices. Officers shall also insure that minor children will be replaced with a responsible adult approved by a parent or guardian if they are left without care due to a traffic stop. The Civil Liberties Union did an excellent job working on this bill.

S 488 - Establish Proportionate Sentence Lengths - Kinnaird - This bill revises the Sentencing Grid so that sentence lengths increase across the grid in 15% increments. It is not retroactive and no offenders will be released early. When Judges and DAs choose to do so, they can still impose the same number of months they are currently imposing in 99% of the cases. These bills are excellent ways to help manage the prison system responsibly and legislators should be applauded for passing them. These bills were part of the Sentencing Commission's alternative package and were supported by the District Attorneys, the Sheriffs and the Department of Corrections.

S489 - Even Out Prior Record Levels - Kinnaird - This bill was also part of the Sentencing Commission's alternative package. It allows 0-1 points in the first prior record level and then sets the increase at a consistent 4 point increase. Along with SB 488, it increases the consistency in the Sentencing grid. Prior to enactment of the bills the Sentencing Commission projected 6,137 new beds would be needed by 2017. New beds will still be needed, but the projection will now come closer to 5,000 beds.

S513 - Notice of Hearing/ Unsupervised Probation - Clodfelter - A notice of a hearing violation to an unsupervised probation may now be sent by mail to the last known available address. If the defendant does not appear, other notices may be delivered or the probation may be terminated and orders entered for monetary obligations.

S526 - School Violence Prevention Act/ Bullying - Boseman - This is an excellent bill that requires schools to adopt policies prohibiting bullying or harassing behavior. This behavior is defined as behavior taking place on school property that creates a hostile environment or places a student or employee in fear of harm to his or her person or property.

S851 - Supervision of Certain Defendants - Vaughn - This bill allows District Courts to supervise defendants who are sentenced in Superior Court and assigned to Drug Treatment Court. This includes the authority to revoke probation when the Chief District Court Judge and the Senior Resident Superior Court Judge agree that it is in the interest of justice to do so.

S853 - Motion for Appropriate Relief/ New Requirement - Vaughan - An attorney making a motion for appropriate relief must certify that the motion is made in good faith, that the trial transcript has been reviewed and that the District Attorney and defense attorney initially working on the case have been notified. All files related to the defendant's case will be made available to the defendant's attorney. The final provision is particularly good and will finally make it possible for defendants to determine whether there is information in the files that may be critical to an appeal.

S920 - Probation Reform - Rand - The final bill contained many improvements over the original bill which opened juvenile records to probation and expanded warrantless searches of probationers. Juvenile experts and DOC officials negotiated to provide important protections for juvenile records when they are made available to adult probation officers.

The adopted bill has been limited to probationers under 25 and will require each probation district to assign a specific officer to the task of reviewing juvenile records at the request of the supervising officer. Only offenses that would have been felonies if committed by an adult are eligible for review. Copies of records shall continue to be confidential and shall be destroyed within 30 days of the juvenile's termination of probation supervision.

Specific conditions of probation have also been added that apply to Intermediate probationers including: not using or possessing alcohol and participating in evaluation, counseling, educational and treatment programs as directed by the probation office. nformation systems improvements are almost complete that will make it possible for law enforcement officers to finally access the data which tells them when a person is on probation. This change has been in a slow-moving process for years and was hastened by the tragic murder of Eve Carson.

A continuing concern about the bill is its potential to erode constitutional protections against warrantless searches when carried out by law enforcement. Law enforcement officers already have the power to conduct a warrantless search when they have probable cause to believe that a crime is underway. The newly enacted provision lowers that standard and allows warrantless searches of a vehicle or person to take place when there is a "reasonable suspicion" of criminal activity. Opponents of this provision - who raised concerns about the provision's constitutionality - were assured that the provision had been drawn as tightly as possible by the Attorney General's office. We applaud the improvements that were made from the initial version, but time will tell if probationers' constitutional rights have been protected. This is likely to be a question that will finally be answered by the Courts.

S1076 - Modify Criminal Justice Partnership Program - Snow - Allows probation officers to refer "community" level defendants to the Criminal Justice Partnership Program when they would "benefit from program participation, based upon the results or a risk assessment." The Division of Community Corrections expects to use this probation with higher risk probationers with documented substance abuse issues who have been unsuccessful under community supervision. This policy is already being successfully implemented in some districts.

S1078 - Delay Bond/ Probationer Arrested for Felony- Snow - Before releasing a probation who has been charged with a new felony offense, the judicial official must determine whether a defendant poses a danger. If so, the defendant may be held up to 96 hours if additional information is needed to determine whether the defendant poses a danger to the public. If a probationer with a pending charge is arrested for violating conditions of probation, the judicial official may hold the probationer up to 7 days to determine if he or she is a danger to the public. We continue to have concerns that the standard of "dangerous to the public" is non-specific and hard to determine with certainty. We would prefer more specific criteria.

S1089 - Low Risk Probationers may be Unsupervised - Snow - Makes it clear that low-risk misdemeanants placed on supervision for the collection of court-ordered payments may be transferred to unsupervised probation.

 

House

H9 - Ban Texting While Driving - It will now be against the lay to text while driving. Since studies show that texting while driving is even more dangerous than driving while intoxicated, this is a good measure. The offense is punishable by a $100 fine.

H243 - Mental Health/LEO Custody - Authorizes a facility to terminate inpatient commitment proceedings when a 24 hour facility is not available. We'll see how this works in practice, but we're concerned that it may let the system off the hook for providing treatment to a person who meets the commitment critieria.

H926 - Continuous Alcohol Monitoring Systems - Allows a person to voluntarily submit themselves to Continuous Alcohol Monitoring systems while their license is revoked. Monitoring of 120 days or longer shall be accepted by the DMV as evidence of abstinence and that evidence may be used to restore a license. The DMV will set guidelines for the use of Continuous Alcohol Monitoring.

H937 - Innocence Commission/ Limited Witness Immunity - Makes it possible to require a witness to testify before the innocence if it's material to the "correct factual determination of the case at hand." This provision is required because there have been cases where innocence could not be accurately determined without the testimony of witnesses who have been unwilling to testify.

H1037 - Permit Access to Capital Defendants - This insures that attorneys may visit capital defendants on the same day a decision is released from the NC Supreme Court or federal courts.

H1039 - Guilty Plea Form Revisions - The Transcript of Plea form will be revised to more clearly inform the defendant that there are limitations on the right of appeal if he or she pleads guilty. There may be a shorter period of preservation of biological evidence when a defendant pleads guilty. A person who violates the order is guilty of an A1 misdemeanor.

H1185/Habitual DWI Reinstatement Petition/10 years - Sutton - Allows a person convicted of habitual DWI to petition for a restoration of driving privileges after 10 years without any traffic or criminal convictions.

H1190 - Preserve DNA Biological Evidence - Glazier, Stam, Ross - Evidence shall be preserved while an individual is in prison and on supervised release for specified offenses falling in the B1 - E felony categories. If a defendant pled guilty, however, the evidence shall be preserved for the earlier of three years from the date of conviction or from the defendant's release. If an entity managing DNA evidence cannot produce the evidence, a hearing may be held to determine if there has been an obstruction of justice. If so, the court may order an appropriate remedy, including the dismissal of charges.

H1255 - Sex Offender - Permanent No Contact Order - Holloway, Wiley, Underhill, Parmon - The Court may require a permanent no contact order in the case of a sex offender when requested to do so by the District Attorney.

H1269 - Omnibus Courts Act - Blue - Requires that provisions to revoke or modify probation in a Drug Treatment Court case must be handled in the county where the Drug Treatment Court operates. It also authorizes cities or counties to use excess facility fees without AOC approval, establishes an internal auditing division for the Judicial Department. The auditing division will audit programs and performance as well as finances.

H1329 - Consolidate Expunction Statutes - Bryant, Bordsen, Adams, Moore - Consolidates expunction statutes and makes the age of expunction apply to the date of conviction. These apply to provisions allowing expunction for first offenders under the age of 18, for certain drug offenses committed under the age of 21