RALEIGH — House Speaker Destin Hall (R-Granite Falls) and Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Eden) announced that lawmakers intend to propose criminal justice reforms in the wake of the August murder of Iryna Zarutska that took place on Charlotte’s light rail system.
Hall and Berger made the announcement at a Sept. 11 press conference and were joined by former National Republican Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, the likely Republican nominee for the state’s U.S. Senate vacancy in 2026.
Hall said Zarutska’s murder was the result of “somebody being released from a jail who should not have been released from a jail.”
“The most fundamental obligation and responsibility of any government is keeping its citizens safe,” said Whatley. “We need leaders at every level to acknowledge that there is a crime crisis here in North Carolina and across the country brought about by the left’s soft-on-crime policies, which affect the safety of every community and every family across our great state.”
Berger added, “Iryna Zarutska should still be alive today. But her life was tragically cut short because of the atrocious policies pushed by out-of-touch politicians and court officials that prioritize a perverted vision or version of equity and politicized social justice over real and tangible justice.”
Berger said the quick release of dangerous offenders by the courts undermines the hard work done by law enforcement officers.
“We cannot stand by while our cities are held hostage by soft-on-crime policies,” he said. “We must stop the ongoing violence from overtaking our state and our country.
“Policing doesn’t need to be reimagined. It needs to be respected. It needs to be funded. Our hard-working law enforcement officers are all too often villainized just for doing their jobs, keeping us safe. It’s time for that to end.”
From Gov. Roy Cooper’s 2020 “Racial Equity Task Force“ was also mentioned, which recommended policies like cashless bail.
“When the General Assembly returns on Sept. 22, we’re going to propose a package of commonsense policies to more effectively tackle crime in our state,” Berger said. “We can start by ensuring that Gov. (Josh) Stein and other members of the executive branch cannot establish any future task forces like the one Roy Cooper created that advanced weak-on-crime policies that kept Iryna’s murderer on the streets.”
Cooper’s task force was co-chaired by Stein while he was attorney general and N.C. Supreme Court Associate Justice Anita Earls.
“We cannot keep our citizens safe if our policies favor criminals over public safety,” Berger said, adding he was looking into ways to “restart the death penalty” in North Carolina.
Hall said possible reforms will include ending cashless bail.
“When folks come in before a magistrate and they’ve been charged with a serious crime, if they have a prior violent felony on their record, it simply should not even be an option to allow that person to have some sort of cashless bail,” said Hall. “They should be held in jail under a secured bond.”
Hall added that if that had happened with Decarlos Brown, the man accused of murdering Zarutska, she would probably still be alive today.
Issues with magistrates being qualified or properly trained will also be looked at by lawmakers, according to Hall. He also said magistrates need more training in mental health assessments and services for individuals who are arrested.
“We’ve also got to look at the way that we handle magistrates in this state,” said Hall. “Charlotte has had a problem. … Mecklenburg County has had a problem with its magistrates for a long time now.”
Hall also referred to his previous legislation, the Pretrial Integrity Act — which put in place measures to make it harder for individuals with a criminal record to receive pretrial release — as “not being enough.”
The two legislative leaders also indicated they were going to investigate the full budgets of Mecklenburg County and the City of Charlotte to see where and how those jurisdictions were spending their money.
“I’ve seen some reports about some grants that they receive from groups that their purpose is to keep people out of jail, or they’re opposed to requiring cash bail,” said Hall. “We’re going to look at some of those grants and see if maybe that played a role in this case in Mecklenburg County.”
Hall said he believed the two jurisdictions “have lost institutional control of their areas.”
Hall said he and Berger have both had conversations with Stein about potential reforms, and they are hopeful a bipartisan solution can be reached.
Based on a video Stein posted to his official X account, he seems to be on the same page about magistrates.
Stein applauded Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles for adding more security to the city’s transit system but said there was a question of how to make sure magistrates “effectively deal with people with severe mental illness.”
“We have to have services for those people so that people do not live in fear,” Stein said of the mentally ill. “We’ve got to make sure we take care of people and everyone is safe.”
