Changes to North Carolina's Sexual Assault Crimes

In the 2015 case State v. Hicks, __ N.C. App. __, 768 S.E.2d 373 (2015), after holding that the trial court committed plain error in its jury instructions, the N.C. Court of Appeals urged the General Assembly to clarify the relevant law: This case illustrates a significant ongoing problem with the sexual offense statutes of this State: the various sexual offenses are often confused with one another, leading to defective indictments. Given the frequency with which these errors arise, we strongly urge the General Assembly to consider reorganizing, renaming, and renumbering the various sexual offenses to make them more easily distinguishable from one another. Currently, there is no uniformity in how the various offenses are referenced, and efforts to distinguish the offenses only lead to more confusion.… We do not foresee an end to this confusion until the General Assembly amends the statutory scheme for sexual offenses. (citations omitted). Responding to the court’s plea, the General Assembly took action. In S.L. 2015-181 it created a new Article 7B in Chapter 14 entitled “Rape and Other Sex Offenses” and recodified many of state’s sexual assault crimes. Separately, S.L. 2015-62 tweaked the elements of statutory rape and sex offense of a person under fifteen and S.L. 2015-44 increased the punishment for two sexual activity with student offenses and amended the definition of the term “school personnel.” All of the changes become effective December 1, 2015, and apply to offenses committed on or after that date. S.L. 2015-181 sec. 48; S.L. 2015-62 sec 1(d); [...]