Crimes Covered under the New Victims' Rights Law

Which crimes are covered under the new victims’ rights amendment and its implementing statute? In a series of recent posts (here, here, and here), Shea has written about the 2018 victims’ rights amendment and the legislation passed to implement it. Today’s post takes a closer look at the threshold question of which crimes are covered under the law. Under prior law, the crimes covered under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act (CVRA) were listed in G.S. 15A-830(7). They included all Class A through Class E felonies, a list of enumerated felonies, certain misdemeanors when committed between persons who have a personal relationship, and certain protective order violations. I used to include the full list, available here, in the sentencing handbook and other publications. The new law, S.L. 2019-216, takes a different approach. For those of you who—unlike my high school math teachers—don’t need me to show my work, I’ll cut to the chase. Here’s a list of all the crimes I think are covered under the new law. For those of you who care to see how I got there, read on. For offenses committed on or after August 31, 2019, “victim” for CVRA purposes is defined as an “offense against the person or a felony property crime.” G.S. 15A-830(7). I’ll consider each prong in detail, starting with the property crimes because they are more straightforward. “Felony property crime” is defined in new G.S. 15A-830(3b). It includes felonies in: Subchapter IV of Chapter 14 (G.S. 14-51 through 14-69.3); Subchapter V of Chapter [...]