NCJ Number
166574
Date Published
1995
Length
65 pages
Annotation
This manual describes the substance and application of North Carolina's new sentencing laws for felonies.
Abstract
The State's new structured sentencing laws went into effect on October 1, 1994, and apply to all felony offenses committed on or after that date. This manual contains changes that go into effect on December 1, 1995, and apply to all felony offenses committed on or after that date. Section I describes the steps required to apply the new sentencing laws. Step 1 determines the offense class. This also involves a determination of related issues of conspiracy to commit a felony, attempt to commit a felony, and solicitation to commit a felony. Other steps are to determine the prior record level, consider aggravating and mitigating factors, select a minimum sentence from the sentence range, determine the maximum sentence, determine the sentence disposition, impose an active punishment, impose an intermediate punishment, and impose a community punishment. Section II of the manual describes additional sentencing provisions. These pertain to life without parole, habitual felons, violent habitual felons, committed youthful offenders, appellate review, parole release, and offense changes. Section III describes additional probation provisions related to the delegation of authority to adult probation and the response to violations of probation. Issues include the modification of probation, criminal contempt of court, and the revocation of probation. Section IV, which addresses additional post-release supervision provisions considers eligibility and procedures, term of post-release supervision, conditions of post-release supervision, and violations of post-release supervision. The concluding section provides examples of how to determine a sentence for a given case. Appended felony offense classifications and a subject index