Implementing State v. Rieger: The One-Set-of-Costs-Per-Sentencing-Episode Rule

In State v. Rieger, ___ N.C. App. ___, 833 S.E.2d 699 (2019), the Court of Appeals held that court costs should be assessed only once for all related charges that are adjudicated together. I wrote about the case here. Today’s post looks at how the appellate courts have applied Rieger since it was decided last October. First, a quick refresher on Rieger. Under G.S. 7A-304(a), “[i]n every criminal case . . . wherein the defendant is convicted” the defendant shall pay the court costs set out in the statute. In Rieger, the Court of Appeals interpreted “criminal case” to refer not to each individual charge for which the defendant is convicted, but rather to all criminal charges stemming from the same underlying incident that are adjudicated together. With that in mind, when a defendant is sentenced for multiple convictions and multiple judgments are entered, costs should attach to only one of them. A handful of post-Rieger cases have applied the new rule, clarifying (to some degree) how it should work in practice. In unpublished State v. Stacy, No. COA19-465, 2020 WL 549010 (N.C. Ct. App. Feb. 4, 2020), the defendant was convicted on two weapon possession charges arising out of the same incident. On July 25, 2018, the trial court assessed costs in both of the active sentence judgments, $522.50 in one case, $372.50 in the other—both apparently imposed as a civil judgment. On appeal, the Court of Appeals vacated the trial court order, concluding that under Rieger, costs are to [...]