Democrat North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein explained in a video why he signed a crime bill that seeks to keep people safer but also resumes death penalty executions by methods other than lethal injection. Screenshot via YouTube
Oct. 4 (UPI) — Democrat North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein reluctantly signed a crime bill, known as “Iryna’s Law,” named after a Ukrainian refugee stabbed to death in the state in August, that seeks to keep people safer.
But on Friday, he criticized restarting the death penalty and changing the execution method, describing hangings as “barbaric.” A last-minute amendment included alternatives to the current legal injection, which is tied up by legal and regulatory challenges.
“There will be no firing squads in North Carolina during my time as governor,” Stein said in a video explaining his decision to sign the bill.
Stein, elected governor last November after serving as the state’s attorney general for eight years, also said he is bothered by the bill’s “lack of ambition or vision. It simply does not do enough to keep you safe.”
But Stein likes other portions of the legislation, including limiting a pre-trial release option for those accused of violent crimes and ramping up scrutiny of court magistrates.
“We can and must do more to keep people safe,” Stein said in the video. “When I review public safety legislation that comes to my desk, I use one simple test: Does it make people safer?
“That’s a good thing and why I have signed it into law. The law fails, however, to focus appropriately on the threat that people pose instead of their ability to post bail.”
House Speaker Destin Hall said the law was “critical legislation that makes our state safer.”
“We will never forget Iryna Zarutska and this is the right first step to ensure what happens to her never happens again,” Hall wrote on X.
Iryna Zarutska, 23, a Ukrainian refugee, was stabbed to death on a Charlotte light-rail train on Aug. 22. Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., who had been arrested more than a dozen times, has been charged with first-degree murder and could face the death penalty if convicted.
Brown also faces a federal charge of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system, which has the option of a federal death penalty.
The Ukrainian’s death has been a rallying point for Republicans.
“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, including Former Disgraced Governor and ‘Wannabe Senator’ Roy Cooper,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sept. 8.
Stein signed the bill, passed by the Republican-controlled House and Senate, shortly before it would become law automatically 10 days after passage.
“Iryna’s Law alerts the judiciary to take a special look at people who may pose unusual risks of violence before determining their bail,” Stein said in the video.
In the new law, judicial officials are required to hold defendants in jail and order mental health evaluations if they have been charged with a violent offense and have been involuntarily committed within the previous three years.
Magistrates and judges can now also order mental health evaluations for a defendant charged with any offense if they believe the defendant was “a danger to themselves or others.”
Srein wants a “red flag” law that also allows family members, law enforcement or other parties to petition a judge to temporarily “remove a gun from someone who is a danger to others or themselves.”
Phil Berger, the leader of the Senate, tacked an amendment at the last minute about executions.
There has been no execution since 2006 because of legal challenges related to the drugs used.
If lethal injections cannot be procured, the state can execute a death row inmate by any other method “adopted by another state,” which could include electrocution, nitrogen hypoxia or firing squads.
The bill doesn’t specifically mention hanging.
Aspects not in the bill that Stein supports include more cops on the beat who are trusted and respected, violence prevention measures that keep kids out of gangs and people off drugs, and acknowledging the role of mental health and guns in violence.
The governor also wants comprehensive background checks to check for violent criminals and dangerous people.
“We can respect people’s Second Amendment rights while also ensuring that anyone who is violent or dangerously mentally ill does not have access to guns,” Stein said.
He also called on legislators to return to Raleigh this month to “fix our mental health care system for the long haul,” and agree on a plan to fully fund Medicaid in the state.
