GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
1995 SESSION

CHAPTER 751
HOUSE BILL 1458

AN ACT TO RAISE THE PENALTY FOR BURNING OF RELIGIOUS STRUCTURES.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1.  G.S. 14-49 is amended by adding a new subsection to read:
"(b1)	Any person who willfully and maliciously damages, aids, counsels, or procures the damaging of any church, chapel, synagogue, mosque, masjid, or other building of worship by the use of any explosive or incendiary device or material is guilty of a Class E felony."
Sec. 2.  G.S. 14-62 reads as rewritten: 
"§ 14-62.  Burning of certain buildings.
If any person shall wantonly and willfully set fire to or burn or cause to be burned, or aid, counsel or procure the burning of, any uninhabited house, or any stable, coach house, outhouse, warehouse, office, shop, mill, barn or granary, or any building, structure or erection used or intended to be used in carrying on any trade or manufacture, or any branch thereof, whether the same or any of them respectively shall then be in the possession of the offender, or in the possession of any other person, he shall be punished as a Class F felon."
Sec. 3.  Article 15 of Chapter 14 of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new section to read:
"§ 14-62.2.  Burning of churches and certain other religious buildings.
If any person shall wantonly and willfully set fire to or burn or cause to be burned, or aid, counsel or procure the burning of any church, chapel, or meetinghouse, the person shall be punished as a Class E felon."
Sec. 4.  This act is effective upon ratification and applies to offenses committed on or after that date.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 21st day of June, 1996.

─────────────────── 
Dennis A. Wicker
President of the Senate

─────────────────── 
Harold J. Brubaker
Speaker of the House of Representatives