Saying he had reservations about some aspects of the new legislation, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, on Friday signed “Iryna’s Law,” a bill that prohibits cashless bail for some violent crimes and most repeat offenders.
The bill comes on the heels of the unprovoked stabbing death of a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in August on a Charlotte light-rail train by a repeat offender — the assault sparking national outrage after surveillance video of the incident went viral.
Authorities have charged Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., with first degree murder. He’d been arrested more than a dozen times and served five years in prison before the fatal train stabbing.
It also follows public pressure also generated by President Donald Trump who highlighted the case in an Oval Office address on crime and lenient bail policies in American cities.
In a three-and-a-half minute video statement, Stein said he doesn’t like every part of the bill that was passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature.
But the governor said he signed it because it “alerts the judiciary to take a special look at people who may pose unusual risks of violence before determining their bail. That’s a good thing.”
Before the stabbing, accused killer Brown had been released in January on a misdemeanor charge.
Charlotte-area Republican state Rep. Tricia Cotham, one of the movers behind the bill, posted a statement on X noting the signing.
“Finally, we are getting dangerous criminals off our streets so we can make sure no one else suffers the heartbreak that Iryna Zarutska’s family endured,” she wrote.
President Trump was particularly focused on the Ukrainian refugee’s murder over the summer, blaming Democrats and often mentioning the tragedy during appearances.
“The blood of this innocent woman can literally be seen dripping from the killer’s knife, and now her blood is on the hands of the Democrats who refuse to put bad people in jail,” the president wrote on Truth Social after the attack.
“We can and must do more to keep people safe,” Stein said in his statement Friday. “When I review public safety legislation that comes to my desk, I use one simple test: Does it make people safer?”
However, the Democrat had criticisms, too. He argued it focuses more on a defendant’s ability to post bail rather than the threat they pose.
According to Fox News:
“Iryna’s Law” prohibits cashless bail for some violent crimes and for most repeat offenders; it limits the discretion magistrates and judges have in making pretrial release decisions; allows for the state chief justice to suspend magistrates; and requires more defendants to undergo mental health evaluation.
But Governor Stein also objected to an amendment that he claimed “aims to bring about execution by firing squad in North Carolina.”
“It’s barbaric,” he said, promising firing squads would never happen on his watch.
The bill doesn’t specifically mention that method of execution, according to Fox’s report on the legislation.
The last execution in North Carolina was in 2006 by lethal injection for a man convicted of murdering his two-year-old stepdaughter.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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