SB 274 North Carolina Senate · 2025-2026 Session

Repeal Crime Against Nature Law.

SB 274 repeals North Carolina’s "crime against nature" law (G.S. 14-177) while creating a new criminal offense for bestiality (G.S. 14-363.4), defined as sexual acts between a person and an animal. The bill directly affects professional educators whose licenses could previously be revoked for "crime against nature" convictions, as it removes that offense from licensing disqualifiers but adds "bestiality" as a new grounds for automatic license revocation. It also updates legal references in statutes related to juvenile offenses and educator licensing to reflect these changes. The new bestiality law carries a Class I felony penalty. The bill takes effect December 1, 2025, for offenses committed on or after that date.

Issues: ✓ Criminal Justice

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Mar 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Mar 12, 2025 Last action Mar 13, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Filed → Edition 1 · 3 edits

MINOR

This is a technical formatting update to Senate Bill 274 that changes the bill's version identifier and removes draft markings. The substantive content of the bill remains unchanged, as it still proposes to repeal the criminal offense of crime against nature in North Carolina while preserving specific existing statutes.

TECHNICAL

Removed draft document identifier 'DRS15121-ML-104' and replaced it with official bill version 'S274-v-1'

Added 'First Edition' designation to the page header to indicate this is the first published version of the bill

Updated filing date from March 12, 2025 to March 13, 2025 and added page numbering

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Full legislative history

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Committee

Mar 13, 2025

Committee

Ref To Com On Rules and Operations of the Senate

upper

Mar 12, 2025

Introduced

Filed

upper

0 primary · 1 co-sponsor