NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1967 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 869

HOUSE BILL 1102

 

 

AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 15 OF THE GENERAL STATUTES TO AUTHORIZE SUPERIOR AND DISTRICT COURT JUDGES TO MAKE DETERMINATIONS OF INDIGENCY, APPOINT COUNSEL, AND FIX COUNSEL FEES IN PRELIMINARY EXAMINATIONS IN FELONY CASES.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

 

Section 1.  A new Section is added to Article 1, Chapter 15, of the General Statutes, to read as follows:

"G.S. 15-5.4.  Superior and District Court Judges Authorized to Appoint Counsel to Represent Indigents at Preliminary Examinations in Felony Cases; Counsel Fees. In order to expedite the administration of criminal justice, superior and district court judges are also authorized, in felony cases only, to make determinations of indigency and to appoint counsel, under the provisions of G.S. 15-4.1 and G.S. 15-5.1, to represent defendants at preliminary examinations. An attorney, appointed under the authority of this Section, who represents an accused at a preliminary examination at which no probable cause is found, is entitled to a fee to be fixed by the district court judge pursuant to G.S. 15-5. If probable cause is found, the attorney's fee for services rendered at the preliminary hearing will be fixed by the superior court judge who presides at the trial, or other disposition, of the charges.

Sec. 2.  All laws and clauses of laws in conflict with this Act are hereby repealed.

Sec. 3.  This Act shall become effective July 1, 1967.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 21st day of June, 1967.