Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the Carolina Journal. The author of this post is Katherine Zehnder.
On Sept 22, exactly one month after the murder of Iryna Zarutska, the North Carolina Senate voted 28-8 to pass Iryna's Law (HB 307), a criminal justice reform bill that tightens pretrial conditions for the release of violent offenders, eliminates cashless bail, establishes a new protocol for ordering mental health evaluations in the criminal justice system, and sets a firmer timeline for appeal in death penalty cases.
The bill creates a new category of
"violent offenses" requiring GPS monitoring, house arrest, or secured bond for those accused, and adds committing a capital felony on public transportation to the list of aggravating factors that can make a defendant eligible for the death penalty. Republican leaders say the changes are designed to ensure violent and repeat offenders remain off the streets while holding magistrates more accountable for release decisions.
On Monday, HB 307 quickly passed through Senate committees and then reached the Senate floor, where lawmakers adopted several amendments before it faced a vote. No Senate Democrats voted for the bill.
"This bill is largely in response to the incident that happened in Mecklenburg County on the Charlotte mass transit system," Sen. Danny Britt, R-Robeson, said while explaining the bill during the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting.
"What this deals with is pretrial release conditions under various circumstances. This does away with written promises to appear and creates a new concept of what would be considered a violent offense. In circumstances, there would be a rebuttable presumption no pretrial release would be granted based on the danger analysis."
In a recent Carolina Journal Poll, an overwhelming majority (73.7%) of North Carolinians surveyed said they support holding judges responsible when they release offenders who go on to commit violent crimes such as murder, while 19.4% said they opposed that idea.
Pretrial policies
Britt explained that if a judicial official determines that pretrial release is appropriate, specific conditions apply depending on the defendant's record. For a first arrest, the only options available are a secure bond or house arrest with electronic monitoring. Second or subsequent only option is house arrest with monitoring. In cases where the defendant has been convicted of three or more offenses-classified as Class I misdemeanors or higher-within the ten years preceding the current offense, the only option is a secure bond combined with house arrest and electronic monitoring.
Iryna's Law also establishes a new protocol requiring judicial officials to order a mental health evaluation if (1) a defendant is charged with a violent offense and has been involuntarily committed within the last three years, or (2) a defendant is charged with any offense and the judicial official has cause to believe the defendant is a danger to himself or others. The judicial official must then order an evaluation for involuntary commitment. If the examiner determines that the defendant needs to be committed, commitment proceedings must be initiated.
"We believe that House Bill 307 is a good first step in ensuring that those in our communities that are mentally ill are in mental hospitals and not in jails and those that are dangerous criminals are in jail and not out on the street," Eddie Caldwell, executive director of the North Carolina Sheriffs' Association, said in support of the bill Monday in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Death penalty in NC
HB 307 modifies procedures related to capital cases. According to a press release from Speaker Destin Hall's office, R-Caldwell, the bill sets timelines for pending appeals and motions: any filing more than 24 months old must be scheduled for a hearing by December 2026, with the hearing held on or before December 2027. It also requires that hearings in death penalty cases occur in the county of the original conviction.
While legal in North Carolina, the death penalty has been under a de facto judicial moratorium for almost twenty years due to ongoing lawsuits. Litigation and injunctions over lethal-injection procedures and medical participation, along with claims of racial discrimination under the now-repealed Racial Justice Act, have led to extended appellate timelines and paused executions in the state.
The Senate adopted several amendments introduced, including an amendment introduced by Berger that would establish lethal injection as the primary default method of execution in the state of North Carolina. Sen. Graig Meyer, D-Caswell, raised concerns about alternative methods of executing the death penalty, including the electric chair and the firing squad.
Berger's amendment directs the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction to implement alternative execution methods if a court order or other administrative barrier prevents lethal injection. The amendment also sets deadlines for adopting a new method, an effort to prevent stall tactics at the executive level. Finally, the amendment stipulates that any case in which a trial court rules a method of execution unconstitutional may be appealed directly to the North Carolina Supreme Court.
"For nearly two decades, judicial and administrative roadblocks have stopped true justice for victims, and it's time for that to end," said Senate Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, in a press release following the vote.
"During my time in the Senate, I've worked to find ways to restart the death penalty, but judges, activist doctors, and weak-on-crime politicians have placed hurdle after hurdle in the way. I hope we can finally get justice for victims' families and for the people of North Carolina."
HB 307 would also classify committing a capital felony against a victim using public transportation as an aggravating factor in death penalty cases. This provision ensures prosecutors can seek-and courts can impose-the death penalty without hesitation in cases similar to the one that claimed Iryna's life.
"Iryna's law is a start, but not a finish, because there are things that we need to try to change instead of North Carolina related to pretrial release and the specific tragic incident that happened in Charlotte regarding this young individual on mass transit," said Britt on the Senate floor.
Additionally, the bill would clarify that a judicial official must review and consider the defendant's criminal history before setting pretrial release conditions. It would also require the judicial official to make written findings of fact explaining the reasons for determining the conditions of release in each case. Failure by a judge or magistrate to make these required findings would be grounds for removal.
The bill further allows the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court or the Chief District Court Judge to initiate suspension proceedings for magistrates. Finally, it directs the North Carolina Collaboratory to study the intersection of mental health and the justice system in North Carolina for both adults and juveniles, examine the availability of house arrest as a condition of pretrial release, and evaluate alternative methods of execution beyond those currently authorized in the state.
HB 307 has been placed on the House calendar for Sept 23rd.
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