In the trial of cases for rape or sex offense or attempt to commit rape or attempt to commit a sex offense, the trial judge may, during the taking of the testimony of the prosecutrix, exclude from the courtroom all persons except the officers of the court, the defendant and those engaged in the trial of the case.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15-166
Exclusion of bystanders in trial for rape and sex offenses
Applied in 18 court decisions — leading case Globe Newspaper Company v. Superior Court for County of Norfolk (1982)
Most recently applied in State v. Weaver (February 2017)
1907, c. 21; C
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: North Carolina General Assembly. Reproduced from public-domain North Carolina statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.