GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2001
S	1
SENATE BILL 819
     

 
Short Title:	Certain Prob. Viol. to Ct. of Appeals.	()	
Sponsors:	Senator Rand.	
Referred to:	Judiciary I.	
April 3, 2001

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to clarify that a person who pleads guilty or no contest to a class h or i felony in district court and receives a probationary sentence will have any resulting probation violation hearing held in district court, and that an appeal from a subsequent probation revocation will be heard in the court of appeals.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 7A‑271(b) reads as rewritten:
"(b)	Appeals by the State or the defendant from the district court are to the superior  court, except as provided in G.S. 7A-272(d) and G.S. 15A-1029.1. The jurisdiction of the superior court over misdemeanors appealed from the district court to the superior court for trial de novo is the same as the district court had in the first instance, and when that conviction resulted from a plea arrangement between the defendant and the State pursuant to which misdemeanor charges were dismissed, reduced, or modified, to try those charges in the form and to the extent that they subsisted in the district court immediately prior to entry of the defendant and the State of the plea arrangement."
SECTION 2.  G.S. 7A‑272(d) reads as rewritten:
"(d)	Provisions in Chapter 15A of the General Statutes apply to a plea authorized under subsection (c) of this section as if the plea had been entered in superior court, so that a district court judge is authorized to act in these matters in the same manner as a superior court judge would be authorized to act if the plea had been entered in superior  court. Any subsequent probation violation hearings held as a result of a plea entered under subsection (c) of this section shall be held in district court. Appeals that are authorized in these  matters, or in subsequent probation revocations resulting from judgments entered in cases as authorized under subsection (c) of this section are to the appellate division."
SECTION 3.  G.S. 15A‑1029.1(b) reads as rewritten:
"(b)	The provisions of Article 58 of this Chapter apply to a case transferred under this section from superior court to district court in the same manner as if the plea were entered in superior court. Appeals that are authorized in these matters  shall be heard in accordance with G.S. 7A-272(d)."
SECTION 4.  G.S. 15A‑1347 reads as rewritten:
"§ 15A‑1347. Appeal from revocation of probation or imposition of special probation upon violation.
When a district court judge, as a result of a finding of a violation of probation, activates a sentence or imposes special probation, the defendant may appeal to the superior court for a de novo revocation  hearing, except as provided in G.S. 7A-272(d) and G.S. 15A-1029.1(b). At the hearing the probationer has all rights and the court has all authority they have in a revocation hearing held before the superior court in the first instance. Appeals from lower courts to the superior courts from judgments revoking probation may be heard in term or out of term, 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. When the defendant appeals to the superior court because a district court has found he violated probation and has activated his sentence or imposed special probation, and the superior court, after a de novo revocation hearing, orders that the defendant continue on probation under the same or modified conditions, the superior court is considered the court that originally imposed probation with regard to future revocation proceedings and other purposes of this Article. When a superior court judge, as a result of a finding of a violation of probation, activates a sentence or imposes special probation, either in the first instance or upon a de novo hearing after appeal from a district court, the defendant may appeal under G.S. 7A‑27."
SECTION 5.  This act is effective when it becomes law.