VARIOUS CRIMINAL PROCEDURE CHANGES.

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View NCGA Bill Details2023-2024 Session
Senate Bill 640 (Public) Filed Wednesday, April 5, 2023
AN ACT TO MODIFY VARIOUS LAWS RELATED TO CRIMINAL PROCEDURE.
Intro. by Britt, B. Newton, Daniel.

Status: Ref To Com On Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House (House action) (May 4 2023)
S 640

Bill Summaries:

  • Summary date: Apr 26 2023 - View Summary

    Senate committee substitute to the 1st edition makes the following changes.

    Amends GS 15A-211, by removing the changes that would have made laws governing electronic recording of juvenile interrogations applicable to (1) all law enforcement interviews and custodial interrogations of juveniles in criminal investigations conducted at any place of detention, and (2) any law enforcement interview or custodial interrogation of any person in a felony criminal investigation conducted at any place of detention. Makes conforming changes by removing interviews throughout the statute, including deletions of changes to the Article's title, the statute's caption, and the statute's stated purpose. 

    Reinstates the provision specifying that nothing in the Article precludes the admission of a statement given at a time when the interrogators are unaware that the person is suspected of an offense to which the Article applies.

    Amends GS 15A-266.7 to require the Crime Lab to notify the office of the district attorney for all CODIS matches (was, to adopt procedures for the notification of the Indigent Defense Services for postconviction CODIS hits that are exculpatory in nature).

    Adds new Article 54, Reliability of In-Custody Informant Statements, to GS Chapter 15A, providing as follows. Requires all interviews of in-custody informants to be recorded using a visual recording device that provides an authentic, accurate, unaltered, and uninterrupted record of the interview that clearly shows both the interviewer and the in-custody informant. Defines in-custody informant as a person, other than a co-defendant, accomplice, or co-conspirator, whose testimony is based on statements allegedly made by the defendant while both the defendant and the informant were held within a city or county jail or a State correctional institution or otherwise confined, where statements relate to offenses that occurred outside of the confinement. Prohibits destroying or altering any electronic recording of an in-custody informant interview until one year after the completion of all State and federal appeals of the conviction, including the exhaustion of any appeal of any motion for appropriate relief or habeas corpus proceedings. Requires law enforcement to clearly identify and catalogue every electronic recording. Applies to offenses committed on or after October 1, 2023.


  • Summary date: Apr 6 2023 - View Summary

    Amends GS 15A-211, making laws governing electronic recording of juvenile interrogations applicable to (1) all law enforcement interviews and custodial interrogations of juveniles in criminal investigations conducted at any place of detention (previously limited to custodial interrogations only), and (2) any law enforcement interview or custodial interrogation of any person in a felony criminal investigation conducted at any place of detention (previously, any custodial interrogation of any person in a criminal investigation conducted at any place of detention if the investigation is related to any Class A, B1, or B2 felony, and any Class C felony of rape, sex offense, or assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflecting serious injury). Makes conforming changes to the Article's title, the statute's caption, and the statute's stated purpose. 

    Revises the definition of "in its entirety" as it applies to the Article to include an uninterrupted record that begins at the start of the interview of custodial interrogation and ends when the interview or custodial interrogation has completely finished. Eliminates the requirement for the record to clearly show both the interrogator and the person in custody; instead requires any visual recording to show the interviewer and the suspect or the interrogator and the suspect. Adds that the record must reflect all starting and ending times and dates, as well as the starting time and date of the recess and resumption of the interview or interrogation. 

    Replaces the previous provisions regarding electronic recording requirements. Enacts a substantively similar requirement to require any law enforcement officer conducting an interview or custodial interrogation of a juvenile involved in a criminal investigation or any person involved in a felony criminal investigation, at a place of detention, to make an electronic recording of the interview or custodial interrogation in its entirety. 

    Makes the provisions regarding the admissibility of electronic recordings applicable to recordings of interviews.

    Enacts a new subsection to require recordings of non-defendant interviews or custodial interrogations to be provided to the juvenile or criminal defendant as part of discovery requirements under GS Chapters 7B and 15A.

    Extends authority of the court in adjudicating motions to suppress a statement of the defendant made during a custodial interrogation which does not comply with the Article's requirements to also suppress statements made during an interview which does not comply with the Article's requirements.

    Adds that the Article does not preclude admission of a statement made in an interview that is conducted in another state by law enforcement officers of that state. No longer explicitly provides that the Article does not preclude a statement given at a time when the interrogators are unaware that the person is suspected of an offense to which the Article applies. 

    Makes the prohibition against destroying or modifying electronic recordings for one year following the completion of all State and federal appeals of the related conviction apply to recordings of interviews. Adds that electronic recordings of non-defendant interviews or custodial interrogations can be destroyed at the conclusion of the State appeal process. 

    Effective October 1, 2023, and applies to interviews and custodial interrogations occurring on or after that date.

    Effective October 1, 2023, amends GS 15A-266.7, requiring the State Crime Lab to adopt procedures for the notification of the Indigent Defense Services for postconviction CODIS hits that are exculpatory in nature.