North Carolina

Recent / Pending Legislation

Arrestees: Yes. From adults and minors. Not Booking Station Rapid Ready because probable cause and/or charges are required before sample collection

Qualifying Crimes: Committing — or attempting, soliciting another to commit, conspiring to commit, or aiding and abetting — any of the following Chapter 14 offenses: (1) Assault with a deadly weapon on executive, legislative, or court officer; and Assault inflicting serious bodily injury on executive, legislative, or court officer. (1a) First and Second Degree Murder. (2) Manslaughter. (2a) Any felony offense in Article 6A, Unborn Victims. (3) Any offense in Article 7B, Rape and Other Sex Offenses. (4) Malicious castration; Castration or other maiming without malice aforethought; Malicious maiming; Malicious throwing of corrosive acid or alkali; Maliciously assaulting in a secret manner; Felonious assault with deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflicting serious injury; Aggravated assault or assault and battery on an individual with a disability (when punishable pursuant to the patient abuse and neglect statute); Patient abuse and neglect, intentional conduct proximately causes death; Domestic abuse of disabled or elder adults resulting in injury; Assault inflicting serious bodily injury or injury by strangulation; Habitual misdemeanor assault; Discharging certain barreled weapons or a firearm into occupied property; Assault with a firearm or other deadly weapon upon governmental officers or employees, company police officers, or campus police officers; Adulterated or misbranded food, drugs, etc., intent to cause serious injury or death, intent to extort; Assault with a firearm on a law enforcement, probation, or parole officer or on a person employed at a State or local detention facility; Assault or affray on a firefighter, an emergency medical technician, medical responder, emergency department nurse, or emergency department physician; Assault inflicting serious injury on a law enforcement, probation, or parole officer or on a person employed at a State or local detention facility; Discharging a firearm from within an enclosure; and Discharge firearm within enclosure to incite fear. (5) Any offense in Article 10, Kidnapping and Abduction, or Article 10A, Human Trafficking. (5a) Any offense in Article 13, Malicious Injury or Damage by Use of Explosive or Incendiary Device or Material. (6) First and second degree burglary; Breaking out of dwelling house burglary; Breaking or entering buildings with intent to terrorize or injure; Breaking or entering a place of religious worship; and Burglary with explosives. (7) Any offense in Article 15, Arson. (8) Armed robbery; Common law robbery punishable pursuant; and, Train robbery. (8a) Assaulting a law enforcement agency animal, an assistance animal, or a search and rescue animal willfully killing the animal. (9) Any offense which would require the person to register under the provisions of Article 27A of Chapter 14 of the General Statutes, Sex Offender and Public Protection Registration Programs. (10) Cyberstalking. (10a) Secretly peeping into room occupied by another person. (10b) Possession of dangerous weapon in prison resulting in bodily injury or escape; Taking of hostage, etc., by prisoner; and Malicious conduct by prisoner. (11) Stalking. (12) Assault on emergency personnel with a dangerous weapon or substance. (13) Unlawful manufacture, assembly, possession, storage, transportation, sale, purchase, delivery, or acquisition of a nuclear, biological, or chemical weapon of mass destruction; exceptions; and Unlawful use of a nuclear, biological, or chemical weapon of mass destruction. (14) Child abuse inflicting serious injury and Child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury. (15) Cruelty to animals; maliciously kill by intentional deprivation of necessary sustenance; and Cruelty to animals; maliciously torture, mutilate, maim, cruelly beat, disfigure, poison, or kill. (16) Attempt to conceal evidence of non-natural death by dismembering or destroying remains.

Time of Collection: At arrest or fingerprinting; where the arrest was warrantless, after the probable cause hearing.

Expungement: Within 90 days of receiving the verification form from the prosecuting district attorney, the Crime Laboratory must remove the person’s DNA record from the State DNA Database and Databank and destroy any retained biological samples — provided the person’s DNA record is not required to be in the State DNA Database under some other provision of law, or is not required to be in the State DNA Database based upon an offense from a different transaction or occurrence from the one which was the basis for the person’s arrest. The prosecuting district attorney must initiate the verification procedure for expungement within 30 days of the occurrence of one of the following events: (1) As to the charge, or all charges, resulting from the arrest upon which a DNA sample is required under this section, a court or the district attorney has taken action resulting in any one of the following: 1.The charge has been dismissed. 2. The person has been acquitted of the charge. The defendant is convicted of a lesser-included misdemeanor offense that is not a listed offense [including first and second degree murder; manslaughter; any offense in Article 7B, Rape and Other Sex Offenses; any offense in Article 10, Kidnapping and Abduction, or Article 10A Human Trafficking; first and second degree burglary; armed robbery; cyberstalking; stalking; child abuse inflicting serious injury; and others, including attempt, solicitation of another to commit, conspiracy to commit, or aiding and abetting another to commit any of the listed violations] 4. No charge was filed within the statute of limitations, if any; or 5. No conviction has occurred, at least three years has passed since the date of arrest, and no active prosecution is occurring. Any person entitled to expungement may also apply to the court for an order expunging DNA records when the person’s case has been dismissed by the trial court. A copy of the application for expungement of the DNA record or DNA sample shall be served on the district attorney for the judicial district in which the felony charges were brought not less than 20 days prior to the date of the hearing on the application.

Statutes / Case Law

NCGS § 15a–266.3a. DNA Sample Required for DNA Analysis upon Arrest for Certain Offenses

§ 15A-146,

§ 15A-148. Expunction of Records

§ 15A-502.1 DNA Sample Upon Arrest

Convicted Offenders: Yes.

Qualifying Crimes: Any felony; assault on individuals with a disability; assault on a female by a male at least 18 years old; assault on a child under 12; stalking; plus every offense for which arrest triggers DNA collection, including, but not limited to: violation of a valid protective order, assault with a deadly weapon on executive, legislative, or court officer, first and second degree murder, manslaughter, any felony offense in Article 6A, Unborn Victims, any offense in Article 7B, Rape and Other Sex Offenses, intentional conduct proximately causing death, Human Trafficking, first and second degree burglary, breaking or entering buildings with intent to terrorize or injure, arson, armed robbery, cyberstalking, secretly peeping into room occupied by another person, child abuse inflicting serious injury, child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury, cruelty to animals.

Time of Collection: Where no sample was taken at arrest, collection occurs at intake to a jail, prison, or mental health facility. A person convicted of a qualifying crime but not sentenced to confinement provides the sample as a condition of the sentence.

Expungement: Within 90 days of receiving the verification form from the prosecuting district attorney, the Crime Laboratory must remove the person’s DNA record from the State DNA Database and Databank and destroy any retained biological samples — provided the person’s DNA record is not required to be in the State DNA Database under some other provision of law, or is not required to be in the State DNA Database based upon an offense from a different transaction or occurrence from the one which was the basis for the person’s arrest. The prosecuting district attorney must initiate the verification procedure for expungement within 30 days if the defendant is convicted of a lesser-included misdemeanor offense that is not a listed offense [including first and second degree murder; manslaughter; any offense in Article 7B, Rape and Other Sex Offenses; any offense in Article 10, Kidnapping and Abduction, or Article 10A Human Trafficking; first and second degree burglary; armed robbery; cyberstalking; stalking; child abuse inflicting serious injury; and others, including attempt, solicitation of another to commit, conspiracy to commit, or aiding and abetting another to commit any of the listed violations]. In addition, upon a motion by the defendant following the issuance of a final order by an appellate court reversing and dismissing a conviction of an offense for which a DNA analysis was done in accordance with Article 13 of Chapter 15A of the General Statutes, or upon receipt of a pardon of innocence with respect to any such offense, the court shall issue an order of expungement of the DNA record and samples.

Statutes / Case Law

NCGS § 15A-266.2. Definitions

NCGS § 15A-266.4. DNA sample required for DNA analysis upon conviction or finding of not guilty by reason of insanity NCGS § 15A-266.3A. Sample Required for DNA Analysis upon Arrest for Certain Offenses § 15A-148. Expunction of Records

State v. Womble, 858 S.E.2d 304 (2021) (Statute that did not authorize automatic expunction of DNA records upon pardon of innocence and instead required defendant to petition for expungement was not unconstitutional as applied to defendant, who was charged with murder based, in part, on DNA profile developed from blood sample obtained during incarceration for murder for which he was later found innocent, under state constitution prohibiting deprivation of life, liberty or property but by “law of the land”).

State v. Jacobs, 128 N.C. App. 559 (1998). (“The purpose of the statute is to clear the public record of entries so that a person who is entitled to expunction may omit reference to the charges to potential employers and others, and so that a records check for prior arrests and convictions will not disclose the expunged entries. Neither the statute nor the order of expunction entered at defendant’s request requires the destruction of investigative files.”).

Legislative History

Session Law 1993-401 | House Bill 1050 “The DNA Database and Databank Act of 1993” Established North Carolina’s original State DNA Database and Databank under SBI administration, created the Article 13 framework (G.S. 15A-266 et seq.), and mandated DNA collection from persons convicted of felonies. This is the foundation of the entire program — but covered only post-conviction collection, not arrest. No analog to 15A-266.3A yet exists.

Session Law 2010-94 | House Bill 1403 “The DNA Database Act of 2010” This is the primary bill. Section 4 created G.S. 15A-266.3A, establishing the arrest-based DNA collection mandate for the first time in NC. Required cheek swab collection at arrest (or at probable cause determination for warrantless arrests) for a defined list of serious offenses including murder, sex offenses, kidnapping, armed robbery, arson, and burglary. Also restructured the State DNA Database to cover arrestees alongside convicts, added the expunction process for dismissed/acquitted cases, upgraded unauthorized DNA disclosure from a misdemeanor to a Class H felony, and extended the mandate to juveniles transferred to superior court. Signed July 15, 2010; effective February 1, 2011.

Session Law 2013-171 | Senate Bill 630 A primarily forensic-evidence housekeeping bill dealing with lab report admissibility and blood evidence disposition. Its one change to 15A-266.3A (Section 9) extended the SBI’s deadline to act on expunction verification forms from 30 to 90 days — a practical fix reflecting the SBI’s processing reality. Effective December 1, 2013.

Session Law 2018-47 | Senate Bill 768 A “people-first language” omnibus bill replacing “mental retardation” with “intellectual disability” throughout the General Statutes, with associated technical amendments. Section 4(n) amended 15A-266.3A’s offense list — this is why subsection (f) in the current statute is considerably longer than the original 2010 version. The additional offenses added include assaults on officers and persons with disabilities, domestic abuse of elders, cyberstalking, secretly peeping, prisoner conduct offenses, and others not in the original 2010 list.

• No program or law found, but evidence of use:
  • Multiple sites in NC using Rapid.
  • Funding request from US Congress in May 2025 for Gastonia Police Department for Rapid DNA.
  • Gastonia PD receives Rapid DNA system – DNA Evidence
  • Federal grant brings DNA processing technology to Gastonia

No program or law found. Although see the North Carolina Human Identification and Forensic Analysis Lab.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg PD has run a multi-grant LODNA census/collection effort (FY2018 $452,637; FY2023 $900,000), uploading 977 profiles and working with 34 of 100 counties; collection authority under N.C.G.S. § 15A-266.4. SAKI – Charlotte · § 15A-266.4

No program or law found.