A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to amend the law regarding the responsibility of a state agency with regard to the preservation and inventory of biological evidence in the agency's custody.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 15A‑268(a1) reads as rewritten:
"(a1)	Notwithstanding any other provision of law and subject to subsection (b) of this section, a custodial agency shall preserve any physical evidence, regardless of the date of collection, that is reasonably likely to contain any biological evidence collected in the course of a criminal investigation or prosecution. Evidence shall be preserved in a manner reasonably calculated to prevent contamination or degradation of any biological evidence that might be present, subject to a continuous chain of custody, and securely retained with sufficient official documentation to locate the evidence."
SECTION 2.  G.S. 15A‑268(a7) reads as rewritten:
"(a7)	Upon written request by the defendant, the custodial agency shall prepare an inventory of biological evidence relevant to the defendant's case that is in the custodial agency's custody. If the evidence was destroyed through court order or other written directive, the custodial agency shall provide the defendant with a copy of the court order or written directive."SECTION 3.  This act is effective when it becomes law.