By Eniola Amadu
The North Carolina legislature has approved a sweeping criminal justice bill named after a Ukrainian refugee killed in Charlotte, advancing measures that restrict bail, mandate mental health evaluations for more defendants, and potentially restart executions in the state.
The measure, known as Iryna’s Law, was prompted by the Aug. 22 stabbing death of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska on Charlotte’s light rail system.
Zarutska, who had fled Russia’s war in Ukraine, was killed in what investigators described as an unprovoked knife attack.
The House voted 81–31 to adopt the Senate version of the Republican-backed bill, sending it to Democratic Gov. Josh Stein.
While Stein has supported some pretrial reforms, his office said he is still reviewing the legislation. With a third of House Democrats joining Republicans in support, a potential veto could be overridden.
The suspect, 32-year-old Decarlos Brown Jr., had been arrested more than a dozen times and was released earlier this year on a misdemeanor charge without bond.
He now faces state and federal murder charges, both of which carry the possibility of the death penalty.
Republicans say the killing exposes dangerous gaps in the bail system.
“The catch-and-release practices for violent offenders will end today with your support,” said GOP Rep. Tricia Cotham of Charlotte. House Speaker Destin Hall added that magistrates had been “asleep at the wheel” in granting Brown’s earlier release.
Defense attorneys counter that magistrates acted within the law.
“It would be totally unconstitutional to hold someone without bond on a low-level misdemeanor,” Charlotte lawyer Tim Emry told WBTV.
Beyond bail reform, the bill expands when offenders should be screened for involuntary psychiatric commitment.
Brown’s mother has said he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Critics, however, argue the measure fails to provide the mental health funding or crisis services needed to prevent similar tragedies.
The legislation also revives North Carolina’s dormant death penalty by requiring the corrections department to adopt alternative methods of execution if lethal injection is ruled unconstitutional or drugs cannot be obtained.
Options could include a firing squad or electrocution, methods Democrats condemned as “barbaric.”
North Carolina has not carried out an execution since 2006. More than 120 inmates remain on death row.
