NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1971 SESSION

CHAPTER 957

SENATE BILL 220

AN ACT TO PROVIDE CREDIT FOR TIME SPENT IN CONFINEMENT PENDING TRIAL.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1.  Article 17 of Chapter 15 of the General Statutes is hereby amended by adding a new section 15-176.2 to read as follows:

"§ 15-176.2.  Credit for time in confinement pending trial. — The term of a definite sentence or the minimum and maximum term of an indeterminate sentence shall be credited with and diminished by the amount of time the defendant spent in confinement prior to the commencement of such sentence as a result of the charge that culminated in the sentence. The credit herein provided shall be calculated from the date custody under the charge commenced to the date the sentence commences. Provided, however, the credit shall not include (1) any time that is credited the term of any previously imposed sentence to which the defendant is subject, or (2) any time during which the defendant is committed to a mental hospital as the result of having been adjudged to be mentally ill and incapable of pleading to the charge. Upon sentencing, the judge presiding shall determine the credits to which the defendant is entitled, and the clerk of the court in which the defendant is sentenced shall transmit to the Department of Correction or to the Sheriff of the county, together with the commitment, a statement of pretrial credits to which the defendant shall be entitled. In the event the defendant is convicted of a crime the punishment of which is either death or life imprisonment, such credit shall not be available for pretrial confinement if the sentence of death or life imprisonment is affirmed upon appeal. If the sentence of imprisonment is to be served in a local confinement facility, rather than under the Department of Correction, the officer having custody of the defendant shall provide the defendant with such credit for pretrial confinement as if he had been committed to the Department of Correction. This provision shall apply to all trials commenced after the ratification of this section."

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  All laws and clauses of laws in conflict with this act are hereby repealed.

Sec. 3.  This act shall become effective upon its ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 19th day of July, 1971.