NC hates to send their forensic lab experts to court to attest to their labwork and experience the joy of cross-examination. That’s since Melendez- Diaz happened in 2009. It threw crime lab techs into court to authenticate and defend their work.

It now imposes a ‘monetary recoupment’ or ‘general cost recovery’ against criminal defendants in order to defray government expenses for ‘court services.’ Apparently these opposing views have not been clearly tested on constitutional grounds. All this surrounds a defendant’s access to the Confrontation Clause and the Right to Remain Silent being diminished.

Here’s an opposing view from defense attorneys can take about defendant fees are :

“Because the NC statute applies only to the prosecution’s forensic experts, defense lawyers might argue that the statute has no legitimate purpose other than to chill the assertion of newly recognized confrontation rights.”

Here is more on this attempt to keep police crime labbers from testifying. I’m sure the District Attorneys in these cases will consider themselves to be knowledgeable scientific substitutes.