Governor Signs Bill Requiring Inventory of N.C. Crimes | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: The author of this post is Kari Travis, who is an associate editor for the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

    Gov. Roy Cooper has signed a bill into law that begins cleaning up North Carolina's criminal code.

    The state has too many crimes, lawmakers and legal experts say. Hundreds of these laws are scattered across more than 140 chapters of the N.C. General Statutes. Hundreds more, created by administrative and licensing bodies, cities, towns, and metropolitan sewer districts, cause confusion as to what is - and isn't - a crime.

    House Bill 379, "Recodification Working Group," will require state agencies, boards, and commissions to take inventory of all crimes on their respective books and report to the General Assembly by Dec. 1, 2018.

    The N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts will sort through common law crimes and the general statutes, identifying redundant, inconsistent, obsolete, and unconstitutional crimes. That list would go to the legislature no later than Feb. 1, 2019.

    Many crimes are oddly specific. Larceny, for instance, is a crime already including all theft of personal property. North Carolina, though, has separate offenses for larceny of dairy crates, motor fuel, political signs, and even ginseng, pine needles, and straw.


Jessica Smith, Kenan Distinguished Professor at the UNC School of Government, spoke April 9 at the John Locke Foundation on complexities in N.C.'s criminal code. (CJ file photo)

    Some towns have laws against chickens running free. Others criminalize business owners who fail to remove snow from their sidewalks, or punish people who allow female dogs in heat to run free.

    Dysfunction results, said Jessica Smith, professor of public law and government at the UNC School of Government. Smith wrote a 1,000-plus-page book on North Carolina crime laws. The extent of crimes are too much even for an expert to comprehend, much less state residents, Smith said during an April presentation at the John Locke Foundation.

    North Carolinians deserve a transparent, understandable code, Rep. Dennis Riddell, R-Alamance, told Carolina Journal. Riddell, a primary sponsor of H.B. 379.

    "The value to the individual citizens will be a stream-lined transparent and searchable criminal code that any citizen can access," Riddell said.

    "It will improve the efficiency of the entire judicial system and insure a more fair and balanced application of the law. It will protect the individual liberties and rights of every individual citizen."

    Once the state takes inventory of all crimes, a working group will review the findings.

    The working group could consider limiting agencies that try to enact new misdemeanors, since the point of recodification is ensuring the code remains clear and understandable, said Steven Walker, general counsel to Lt. Gov. Dan Forest. Walker was instrumental in the crafting of H.B. 379.
Go Back


Leave a Guest Comment

Your Name or Alias
Your Email Address ( your email address will not be published)
Enter Your Comment ( no code or urls allowed, text only please )




U.S. Supreme Court Punts N.C. Partisan Redistricting Challenge Carolina Journal, Editorials, Op-Ed & Politics House Sends Hunting Amendment to Voters, Voter ID to Senate


HbAD0

Latest Op-Ed & Politics

most voters think EU officials not doing a good job on illegal immigration
Be careful what you wish for, you may get it
Come from behind by GOP candidate is a blueprint to 2024
Biden spending and energy policies to blame
Tuberculosis carried by illegal invaders has already infected Texas cattle

HbAD1

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said this week that the only campaign promise President Joe Biden has delivered on as president is the complete dismantling of the U.S. southern border.
Hamas is reeling after losing two of their most cherished leaders on the same day: military commander Saleh al-Arouri, and Harvard President Claudine Gay.
President Joe Biden’s brother told the Internal Revenue Service that Hunter Biden told him he was in business with a “protege of President Xi,” referring to the leader of China, according to notes by an IRS investigator that were divulged during a congressional interview of Jim Biden.
Gov. Roy Cooper seeks a temporary restraining order to block a law changing the composition of the State Board of Elections.
X owner Elon Musk mocked a news segment from ABC News this week that promoted President Joe Biden’s talking points about the Democrat-led Senate’s failed border bill, which critics and many experts have said would make the situation on the border worse.
That’s the question Marguerite Roza of Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab sought to answer in a recent webinar on the topic.

HbAD2

The University of Florida has fired all of its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) employees and shut down its DEI office.

HbAD3

 
Back to Top