The Republican leaders of the North Carolina General Assembly announced that they are preparing a legislative package, including restricting pretrial release and reinstating the death penalty among other measures, to address violent crimes, after the brutal murder of an ukrainian immigrant in Charlotte.
Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old ukrainian refugee, was stabbed to death while traveling on a Charlotte light train on August 22. His attacker, De Carlos Brown Jr., who now is in custody, was free since January after being released without bail by a magistrate despite his long criminal history.
Senate Leader Phil Berger, and House Speaker Destin Hall, said at a press conference last Thursday that Zarutzka’s case was the result of “soft on crime policies,” so they will prioritize stricter crime laws when the Legislature returns from recess on Sept. 22.
“We cannot keep our citizens safe if our policies favor criminals over public safety,” Berger said. “I’m personally looking into ways to restart the death penalty here in North Carolina.”
The death penalty is legal in North Carolina, but executions were halted in 2006, due to a series of lawsuits over its constitutionality.
Hall said the package of measures they are preparing also includes limiting the discretion of magistrates who decide on pretrial releases, ending cashless bails, increasing the supervision of magistrates and improving their selection process.
“When we have magistrates who fall asleep at the wheel like this one, obviously we have to make a change,” Hall said, referring to the magistrate who freed the killer of the young ukrainian woman stabbed in Charlotte.
“We’re going to be looking at some oversight of magistrates, looking at the way that we select magistrates, looking at ethical issues with magistrates, and making sure that the folks are making these decisions, are paying attention to what they’re doing, and that they’re trying to serve the public safety and not some whatever left wing interests,” Hall said.
In addition to discussing this package of measures, the Legislature also has a pending to vote on seven bills that were vetoed by Democratic Gov. Josh Stein.
Among them is SB153, promoted by Berger, which seeks to force state agencies such as the Highway Patrol and the State Bureau of Investigations to collaborate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Berger and Hall did not mention whether they will discuss these vetoed bills when they return on Sept. 22, but all of them are on the legislative calendar already.
The republicans have supermajority in the Senate but they would need the support from at least one democrat in the House to override the vetoes.
