NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1981 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 686

SENATE BILL 62

 

 

AN ACT TO ABOLISH THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN ACCESSORIES BEFORE THE FACT AND PRINCIPALS AND TO MAKE ACCESSORIES BEFORE THE FACT PUNISHABLE AS PRINCIPAL FELONS.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

 

Section 1. Chapter 14 of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new section to read as follows:

"§ 14-5.2. Accessory before fact punishable as principal felon. - All distinctions between accessories before the fact and principals to the commission of a felony are abolished. Every person who heretofore would have been guilty as an accessory before the fact to any felony shall be guilty and punishable as a principal to that felony. However, if a person who heretofore would have been guilty and punishable as an accessory before the fact is convicted of a capital felony, and the jury finds that his conviction was based solely on the uncorroborated testimony of one or more principals, co-conspirators, or accessories to the crime, he shall be guilty of a Class B felony."

Sec. 2. G.S. 14-5, G.S. 14-5.1, and G.S. 14-6 are repealed.

Sec. 3. This act does not apply to any offense committed before the effective date of this act, and any such offense is punishable under the laws in effect at the time such offense was committed.

Sec. 4. This act shall become effective on July 1, 1981, and is applicable to all offenses committed on and after that date.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 25th day of June, 1981.