A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to add an aggravating factor in capital murder cases that the defendant knowingly violated a domestic violence protective order and the victim was a person protected under the order.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 15A‑2000(e) reads as rewritten:
"(e)	Aggravating Circumstances. – Aggravating circumstances which may be considered shall be limited to the following:
(1)	The capital felony was committed by a person lawfully incarcerated.
(2)	The defendant had been previously convicted of another capital felony or had been previously adjudicated delinquent in a juvenile proceeding for committing an offense that would be a capital felony if committed by an adult.
(3)	The defendant had been previously convicted of a felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person or had been previously adjudicated delinquent in a juvenile proceeding for committing an offense that would be a Class A, B1, B2, C, D, or E felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person if the offense had been committed by an adult.
(4)	The capital felony was committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest or effecting an escape from custody.
(5)	The capital felony was committed while the defendant was engaged, or was an aider or abettor, in the commission of, or an attempt to commit, or flight after committing or attempting to commit, any homicide, robbery, rape or a sex offense, arson, burglary, kidnapping, or aircraft piracy or the unlawful throwing, placing, or discharging of a destructive device or bomb.
(6)	The capital felony was committed for pecuniary gain.
(7)	The capital felony was committed to disrupt or hinder the lawful exercise of any governmental function or the enforcement of laws.
(8)	The capital felony was committed against a law‑enforcement officer, employee of the Department of Correction, jailer, fireman, judge or justice, former judge or justice, prosecutor or former prosecutor, juror or former juror, or witness or former witness against the defendant, while engaged in the performance of his official duties or because of the exercise of his official duty.
(9)	The capital felony was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel.
(10)	The defendant knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person by means of a weapon or device which would normally be hazardous to the lives of more than one person.
(11)	The murder for which the defendant stands convicted was part of a course of conduct in which the defendant engaged and which included the commission by the defendant of other crimes of violence against another person or persons.
(12)	The defendant knowingly violated a valid protective order entered under Chapter 50B of the General Statutes, and the murder victim was the petitioner, minor family member, or any other person designated as a protected party by the order."SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective December 1, 2007, and applies to offenses committed on or after that date.