Bill Summary for S 855 (2019-2020)

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Summary date: 

May 27 2020

Bill Information:

View NCGA Bill Details2019-2020 Session
Senate Bill 855 (Public) Filed Tuesday, May 26, 2020
AN ACT TO ESTABLISH THE BIPARTISAN LEGISLATIVE WORKING GROUP TO MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE RECODIFICATION OF NORTH CAROLINA'S CRIMINAL LAWS AND TO APPROPRIATE FUNDS TO THE CRIMINAL LAW INNOVATION LABORATORY TO ASSIST THE WORKING GROUP.
Intro. by Wells, Daniel, Britt.

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Bill summary

Creates the nine-member Bipartisan Legislative Working Group on Criminal Law Recodification (Working Group) to make recommendations to the 2021 General Assembly regarding a streamlined, comprehensive, orderly, and principled criminal code that includes all common law, statutory, regulatory, and ordinance crimes, and to oversee the work of the UNC School of Government's (SOG) Criminal Justice Innovation Lab (CJIL). Requires the Working Group to solicit feedback from the public as well as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, the Conference of District Attorneys, Indigent Defense Services, the North Carolina Sheriffs' Association, and the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police.

Establishes Task Force membership requirements and requires that appointments be made no later than 30 days after the act becomes law. Requires the Working Group to meet at least monthly beginning no later than August 15, 2020. Sets out provisions on establishing a quorum, assigning staff. Terminates the Working Group on August 15, 2021.

Appropriates $338,771 in nonrecurring funds for 2020-21 from the General Fund to SOG to be allocated to the CJIL for the purposes of this act. Allows the funds to be used to hire temporary employees and to cover the costs associated with work done by the CJIL Director and a part-time project manager. Requires any other funds made available to CJIL to conduct the work of this act to be expended first and requires unencumbered and unexpended State funds to revert to the General Fund upon termination of the Working Group. 

Requires CJIL to report to and take direction from the Working Group, with CJIL's work led by the Director and supported by the specified legal and non-legal staff. Requires the Director to report at least every two weeks to the Chair of the Working Group regarding the CJIL's progress. Requires the Working Group to establish general principles for the CJIL to follow to create a streamlined, comprehensive, orderly, and principled criminal code, with the principles providing for at least the eight listed elements, including applying consistent terminology across statutes and defining all terminology, specifying the required mental state or that an offense is a strict liability crime, eliminating redundant crimes and multiple punishments for the same conduct, and eliminating outdated laws. 

Sets out the following required CJIL deliverables: (1) for common law crimes and crimes included in the NC General Statutes, create a database of all statutory and common law crimes, including specified information, and draft legislation amending, recodifiying, or proposing changes to the criminal statutes in a format consistent with the NCGA's drafting conventions; (2) for crimes created by local ordinances, create a database of ordinance offenses, including specified information; report to the Working Group on common ordinance crimes, including charging data and a range of policy options for addressing ordinance crimes consistent with the Working Group's goals; and draft legislation using a format consistent with the NCGA's drafting conventions; and (3) for crimes created by administrative boards and bodies, create a database of all crimes created by administrative boards and bodies that make it a crime to violate any regulation created by an administrative board or body, including specified information; report to the Working Group on policy options for addressing regulatory crimes consistent with the Working Group's goals; and draft legislation using a format consistent with the NCGA's drafting conventions.

Effective July 1, 2020.