NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1975 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 309

SENATE BILL 280

 

 

AN ACT TO AMEND G.S. 15-200.1 TO PROVIDE ADVANCE WRITTEN NOTICE FOR GROUNDS OF REVOCATION OF PROBATION OR SUSPENSION AND TO REPEAL G.S. 15-200.2.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

 

Section 1.  G.S. 15-200.1, as it presently appears in the 1974 Cumulative Supplement of Volume 1C of the General Statutes of North Carolina, is hereby amended to read as follows:

"In all cases of probation or suspension of sentence in the superior and district court, before a probation or suspension of sentence may be revoked, the probation officer, district attorney or other officer shall inform the probationer in writing, not less than seven days prior to the time he intends to pray judgment placing such suspended sentence into effect or revocation of such probation, the grounds upon which revocation is prayed. The probationer shall be entitled to representation by counsel, including court-appointed counsel if he is indigent and confinement is possible. In all cases where probation or suspension of sentence entered in a court inferior to the superior court is revoked and sentence is placed into effect, the defendant shall have the right of appeal therefrom to the superior court, and, upon such appeal, the matter shall be determined by the judge without a jury, but only upon the issue of whether or not there has been a violation of the terms of probation or of the suspended sentence. Upon its finding that the conditions were violated, the superior court shall enforce the judgment of the lower court unless the judge finds as a fact that circumstances and conditions surrounding the terms of the probation and the violation thereof have substantially changed, so that enforcement of the judgment of the lower court would not accord justice to the defendant, in which case the judge may modify or revoke the terms of the probationary or suspended sentence in the court's discretion. Appeals from lower courts to the superior courts from judgments revoking probation or invoking suspended sentence may be heard in session or out of session, in the county or out of the county by the resident superior court judge of the district or the superior court judge assigned to hold the courts of the district, or a judge of the superior court commissioned to hold court in the district, or a special superior court judge residing in the district."

Sec. 2.  G.S. 15-200.2 as it presently appears in the Cumulative Supplement, Volume 1C of the General Statutes of North Carolina, is hereby repealed.

Sec. 3.  All laws and clauses of laws in conflict with this act are hereby repealed.

Sec. 4.  This act shall be in full force and effect from and after July 1, 1975.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 16th day of May, 1975.