Today’s post reviews the latest Structured Sentencing Statistical Report from the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission.
This year’s report, based on data from Fiscal Year 2024, is available in full here. It is organized by sentencing episodes, defined as the most serious conviction for a defendant on a given day in court.
The total number of felony and misdemeanor sentences has rebounded from the pandemic years, though the number of misdemeanor sentences (99,088) continues to be far lower than what it used to be (it was over 150,000 in 2010). That’s no surprise when you consider that, according to other court system data, misdemeanor filings and convictions have both decreased by over 40 percent over the last decade. Felony convictions decreased by about 18 percent over the same time period.
Most common grid cell, most common crimes. As usual, Class H–Level II was the most frequently used cell on the felony grid. It accounted for 2,415 sentences—almost 10 percent of all felony sentences. The most commonly sentenced felony is possession of firearm by felon. The most common misdemeanor is driving while license revoked (non-DWI).
Jury trials continue to be rare. About 2 percent of all felony convictions (498 out of 26,079) were the result of a jury trial. There were 8 sentences imposed after a bench trial, twice as many as last year.
Class H and I guilty pleas in district court. The number of Class H and I felony pleas handled in district court popped to 5,072 (31 percent of all Class H and I felony convictions), up from 4,277 (27 percent) last year. That jump may be the result of the jurisdictional change made in 2023, S.L. 2023-97 (Shea wrote about it here), removing the requirement for the presiding district court judge to consent to the entry of a felony plea in district court. Under the revised law, the district court has jurisdiction to accept a felony guilty plea when the prosecutor and the defendant consent; the judge’s consent is no longer required. G.S. 7A-272(c).
Habitual felon sentences are up a bit, climbing to 807 from 762 last year. Possession of firearm by felon overtook meth possession as the most commonly habitualized offense. For many years breaking or entering was the most commonly habitualized offense. If you’re thinking that it may have declined as a regular habitual felon offense because it is being sentenced under the habitual breaking and entering law (elevating breaking or entering to Class E upon a second conviction), I’d say that doesn’t fully explain the trend. The habitual B&E law was used 32 times, down from 51 times last year.
Drug trafficking sentences jumped to 638 from 510 last year, exceeding pre-pandemic numbers that hovered between 450 and 500. Despite the “mandatory” active punishments for trafficking, about 10 percent of trafficking sentences resulted in probation and many others had minimum and maximum sentences well below the regular statutory requirements. That indicates that the court either found substantial assistance under G.S. 90-95(h)(5) or granted First Step relief under G.S. 90-95(h)(5a)—or made a sentencing error, I suppose.
ASR. Advanced supervised release (ASR) was used 156 times, which is similar to previous years. As usual, a lot of those ASR sentences (35) were for Class D felonies, where the ASR date cuts years off the defendant’s sentence. I think it’s fair to say ASR still hasn’t fully caught on as a mainstream sentencing outcome. I don’t do advocacy work, but I will say that the existing, now 13-year-old ASR law operates a lot like laws advocates for sentencing reform sometimes ask me to “support.” The law allows for an earlier release for inmates who complete certain incentives in prison, as described in this short video on my YouTube channel from 2015. I’ll also encourage a look at the Department of Adult Correction’s ASR policy, which gives insight into the way DAC handles ASR sentences. For example, you can see that they prioritize placement of ASR inmates into appropriate programming (“[E]very effort will be made for that offender to participate in necessary Correctional Risk Reduction Incentives based upon risk score and identified criminogenic needs as determined by the Risk/Needs Assessment (RNA),”) and that they will try to honor court recommendations regarding specific program assignments (“If the sentencing court has made specific recommendations for program participation, these recommendations will be evaluated by Diagnostic Center staff to determine if it will be necessary, appropriate, and possible for the offender to participate in said programs.”) According to the most recent Justice Reinvestment Act Implementation Evaluation Report (another helpful Sentencing Commission publication), the vast majority (94 percent) of defendants who receive an ASR date at sentencing succeed in obtaining release at their ASR date.
Death and life. Fiscal year 2024 saw 1 death sentence, 86 life without parole sentences, and three young defendants sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 25 years. There were 4 life sentences imposed for violent habitual felons, which is an unusually high number.
Firearm enhancement. The firearm enhancement of G.S. 15A-1340.16A was used once.
Gang enhancements. The gang activity enhancements of G.S. 15A-1340.16E were not used at all.
There is so much more in the full report, including an extremely helpful table showing the collective sentencing outcomes for the most charged offenses. See Appendix D, Table 1. It shows, for example, that roughly half of the 95 involuntary manslaughter convictions last year received an active sentence, half received probation, and that the average term of imprisonment imposed for that offense was 21–35 months. Those averages seems like a helpful benchmark for those arguing for a particular sentence based on the facts of an individual case.
As always, I thank the Commission staff for its careful work.
