A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to clarify and expand the criminal offense of stalking and to increase the penalty for stalking.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 14‑277.3 reads as rewritten:
"§ 14‑277.3.  Stalking.
					(a)	Legislative Intent. – The General Assembly finds that stalking is a serious problem in this State and nationwide. Stalking involves severe intrusions on the victim's personal privacy and autonomy. It is a crime that causes a long‑lasting impact on the victim's quality of life and creates risks to the security and safety of the victim and others, even in the absence of express threats of physical harm. Stalking conduct often becomes increasingly violent over time.
The General Assembly recognizes the dangerous nature of stalking as well as the strong connections between stalking and domestic violence and between stalking and sexual assault. Therefore, the General Assembly enacts this law to encourage effective intervention by the criminal justice system before stalking escalates into behavior that has serious or lethal consequences. The General Assembly intends to enact a stalking statute that permits the criminal justice system to hold stalkers accountable for a wide range of acts, communications, and conduct. The General Assembly recognizes that stalking includes, but is not limited to, a pattern of following, observing, or monitoring the victim, or committing violent or intimidating acts against the victim, regardless of the means.
(b)	Definitions. – The following definitions apply in this section.
(1)	Course of conduct. – Two or more acts, including, but not limited to, acts in which the stalker directly, indirectly, or through third parties, by any action, method, device, or means, is in the presence of, or follows, monitors, observes, surveils, threatens, or communicates to or about a person, or interferes with a person's property. The term also includes using the legal system to harass a victim by continuously filing motions for contempt or modifications, or by filing retaliatory protection order applications or criminal charges against victims.
(2)	Emotional distress. – Significant mental suffering or distress that may, but does not necessarily, require medical or other professional treatment or counseling.
(3)	Reasonable person. – A reasonable person in the victim's circumstances.
(c)	Offense. – A defendant is guilty of stalking if the defendant willfully engages in a course of conduct directed at a specific person and knows or should know that the course of conduct would cause a reasonable person to do any of the following:
(1)	Fear for his or her safety or the safety of a third person; or
(2)	Suffer other emotional distress.
(d)	Lack of Actual Notice or Specific Intent Are not Defenses. – In any prosecution under this law, it shall not be a defense that:
(1)	The actor was not given actual notice that the course of conduct was unwanted; or
(2)	The actor did not intend to cause the victim fear or other emotional distress.
(e)	Classification. – A violation of this section is a Class H felony. A defendant  convicted of a Class H felony under this section, who is sentenced to a community punishment, shall be placed on supervised probation in addition to any other punishment imposed by the court. A defendant who commits the offense of stalking when there is a court order in effect prohibiting similar behavior by that defendant is guilty of a Class G felony. A defendant who commits the offense of stalking after having been previously convicted of a stalking offense is guilty of a Class F felony.
(f)	Jurisdiction. –  If any act that is part of the course of conduct was initiated in or had an effect on the victim in this State, the defendant may be prosecuted in this State."
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective December 1, 2007, and applies to offenses committed on or after that date.  Prosecutions for offenses committed before the effective date of this act are not abated or affected by this act, and the statutes that would be applicable but for this act remain applicable to those prosecutions.