Overview
- Cashless bail is barred for many violent or repeat offenders as judges must review full criminal histories and impose secure bonds, house arrest or GPS monitoring rather than unsecured release.
- Courts must order mental-health evaluations for specified defendants, including those recently involuntarily committed or deemed dangerous, with options to consider renewed institutionalization.
- The law adds a public-transportation aggravator that can make defendants eligible for capital punishment and sets a two-year deadline for death-penalty appeals while expanding allowable execution methods.
- Operational changes include ten new assistant prosecutors for Mecklenburg County, authority for the state chief justice to suspend magistrates, and expanded options to extend juvenile probation for dangerous youths.
- Law-enforcement and legal officials flag resource strains such as larger jail populations and added court workload, and federal prosecutors continue seeking the death penalty in the Zarutska case tied to the law’s origin.