NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1975 SESSION

CHAPTER 703

HOUSE BILL 954

AN ACT RELATING TO PUNISHMENT FOR BURGLARY IN THE FIRST DEGREE AND FOR ARSON COMMITTED PRIOR TO THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF CHAPTER 1201 SESSION LAWS OF 1973.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1.  The provisions of G.S. 14-52 and G.S. 14-58, as rewritten by Sections 3 and 4, respectively, of Chapter 1201 of the Session Laws of 1973, providing that punishment for first degree burglary and arson shall be imprisonment for life in the State's prison, shall apply to all crimes of first degree burglary and arson committed prior to April 8, 1974, the effective date of Chapter 1201, Session Laws of 1973, as well as to those thereafter committed.

Sec. 2.  In all cases in which the defendant has been convicted of first degree burglary or arson committed prior to April 8, 1974, and a sentence of death has been pronounced, the defendant may apply to the judge who presided at the burglary or arson trial resulting in the sentence of death, or, if said judge is unavailable, to a resident superior court judge of the judicial district in which said burglary or arson trial was held for a modification of the sentence in accordance with the terms of this act. Upon appropriate findings of fact, the judge shall pronounce a sentence of imprisonment for life which shall be imposed in lieu of the death sentence. The defendent shall be allowed credit for time spent in custody awaiting execution of the sentence of death.

Sec. 3.  An indigent person under sentence of death for first degree burglary or arson committed before April 8, 1974, shall be entitled to counsel in making one application under this act for each such sentence of death, if he is otherwise entitled under Article 36 of Chapter 7A of the General Statutes of North Carolina.

Sec. 4.  This act shall become effective upon ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 23rd day of June, 1975.