I am excited to announce that I have published a bulletin on Iryna’s Law and Pretrial Release. The bill under which it was enacted, Session Law 2025-93 (HB 307), made a number of changes to statutes affecting criminal law and procedure. The bulletin focuses on the changes affecting pretrial release that took effect on December 1, 2025.

The bulletin also includes two additional resources: (1) an updated chart of violent offenses and (2) a bench guide for judicial officials.

Violent Offenses Chart

I am pleased to learn that many of our readers have found useful the violent offense chart that I first shared to this blog in December. Appended to the bulletin is an updated version of the chart, with the following changes:

(1) There is now a clarifying note that violent offenses include attempts to commit any offense listed in the chart.

(2) There is now a clarifying note that the “felony requiring sex offender registration” category includes charges for solicitation or conspiracy to commit those offenses. Felonies requiring sex offender registration encompass, by their own terms, solicitation and conspiracy to commit those offenses. See G.S. 14-208.6(1m) and G.S. 14-208.6(5). Thus, any solicitation or conspiracy to commit a felony offense that requires sex offender registration is a violent offense, so long as the solicitation or conspiracy is punishable as a felony. 

(3) The following offenses have been separated out:

• G.S. 14-43.14: Unlawful sale, surrender, or purchase of a minor
• G.S. 14-202(c): Second/subsequent conviction for misdemeanor peeping
• G.S. 14-202(d), (e1), (f), (g), or (h): Felony peeping

These offenses require sex offender registration only when a sentencing court rules that the person is a danger to the community and that the person should register. The offenses are likely not violent offenses at the time they are charged but may be considered “prior violent offenses” for purposes of G.S. 15A-534(b1)(2) following the judicial determination at sentencing.

Bench Guide

Also appended to the bulletin is a bench guide that is intended to assist judicial officials in navigating the many pretrial release rules in the General Statutes. The guide does not reference every pretrial release rule. Rather it addresses generally (i) which judicial official has authority to set conditions of release under a given circumstance and (ii) which type(s) of release may be imposed. The printable version is available here. I welcome feedback on the guide (bwilliams@sog.unc.edu).