Bill cracking down on gang activity advances in NC legislature after pushback

An anti-gang bill cleared a key committee Tuesday in the North Carolina House after lawmakers debated how far the state should go in defining gang activity and whether the proposals could violate constitutional rights.

House Bill 1173 is an effort to give prosecutors and law enforcement stronger tools to investigate, prosecute and deter gang activity across the state, sponsors say.

The bill seeks to make changes to the North Carolina Criminal Gang Suppression Act. Bill sponsor John Bell, R-Wayne, said the bill makes prosecuting gang crimes difficult, saying it “requires near-impossible evidence to prove criminal gang activity, leadership, and membership.” 

“This bill puts realistic definitions in place while still putting the world on notice of what gang activity and gang crime in North Carolina is,” Bell said Tuesday during a House Judiciary Committee meeting. 

The state enforces enhanced penalties for crimes committed by gang members. The bill seeks to clarify definitions of criminal gangs and what constitutes criminal gang activity. The law defines a criminal gang as an informal group of at least three people that share common traits. Such as signs, symbols, attire and other criteria. 

The bill would lower thresholds for identifying gang leaders and members, and it proposes that gang association can be proven by an expert witness. State law currently defines a criminal gang member as someone who meets at least three of nine criteria — things such as wearing known gang colors, making hand signs associated with gangs or having gang tattoos, for instance. The bill would seek to lower the threshold to two.

Some lawmakers and members of the public warned during Tuesday’s committee meeting that lowering the threshold could implicate innocent people, raising constitutional concerns.

“What we don't want to do is create a dragnet that is so broad that it targets people who are merely guilty by association,” State Rep. Deb Butler, D-New Hanover, said. “And my fear is that we have broadened the definitions here of ‘criminal gang’ and ‘criminal gang member’ to the point that we are likely to include people who are merely associated with a group rather than those who have actually committed a crime that used to be the standard.”

She pointed to Supreme Court precedent that says someone can’t be punished simply for who they associate with, versus actual criminal conduct proven in court.

“Criminals need to be in jail,” Butler said. “... But we don't want to give up our civil rights or our constitutional rights and put people in jail who are not guilty of crime.” 

Butler added that she is also worried that elements of the bill could come down to one witness’s word against another's in court. She argued that a gang specialist could depict what a gang sign means or identify perceived gang behavior and convince a jury someone is in a gang without proof. She wants to avoid scenarios in which an expert witness might “convince a jury of something that no one actually witnessed.” 

Bell says the bill provides clearer guidance for judges who have “struggled with the evidence that a state may use to prove gang activity, leadership, and membership.”Bell said that there are other protections in state law to prevent innocent people from being caught up in this law. “We are not convicting people merely for being a gang member,” he said. “Being a criminal gang member is one element of the crime, and that a conviction requires that a member engage in a criminal gang activity, which encompasses drug trafficking, sex trafficking, homicide, et cetera.”

Sponsors made some adjustments to the proposal on Tuesday. They removed proposed offenses criminalizing the possession of a firearm by a criminal gang member, removed a proposed offense of criminalizing the transfer of firearms to a criminal gang member — provisions that could have also faced challenges over constitutional rights. 

“We've continued to work on this to try to get as good a bill as we possibly can before it goes to the House floor,” Bell said. 

Bell and his bipartisan cosponsors call the bill “Jaleeyah’s Law,” named for 13-year-old Jaleeyah Tune of Goldsboro, who was fatally shot in the head in December. Lawmakers say it was a gang-related killing. She was a seventh grader at Wayne Academy.

“A tragic incident that happened in our community, where a beloved 13-year-old little girl was murdered four days before Christmas last year,” Bell said Tuesday. “It shocked our community, it rocked our community, and the whole community in our area grieved.”

The bill now moves to the House Rules Committee. It would need approval by both legislative chambers to be considered by Gov. Josh Stein.