A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to amend the criminal offense of burglary by eliminating the essential element that the crime be committed at night.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 14‑51 reads as rewritten:
"§ 14‑51. First and second degree burglary.
There shall be two degrees in the crime of burglary as defined at the common law; however, the crime of burglary shall not include as an essential element of proof that the offense be committed at night. The crime of burglary may occur at any time of the day if all other elements of the common-law offense are established. If the crime be committed in a dwelling house, or in a room used as a sleeping apartment in any building, and any person is in the actual occupation of any part of said dwelling house or sleeping apartment at the time of the commission of such crime, it shall be burglary in the first degree. If such crime be committed in a dwelling house or sleeping apartment not actually occupied by anyone at the time of the commission of the crime, or if it be committed in any house within the curtilage of a dwelling house or in any building not a dwelling house, but in which is a room used as a sleeping apartment and not actually occupied as such at the time of the commission of the crime, it shall be burglary in the second degree. For the purposes of defining the crime of burglary, larceny shall be deemed a felony without regard to the value of the property in question."
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective December 1, 2003, and applies to offenses committed on or after that date.