Reactivating death penalty, tighter magistrate oversight proposed

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(The Center Square) – Finding a route to reactivating the death penalty and tighter oversight of magistrates is expected in legislative proposals when the North Carolina General Assembly returns the week of Sept. 22.

Leaders of the chambers spoke on Thursday about their plans, offering no specifics other than a commitment to dive into and find solutions in judicial processes related to the stabbing death on a Charlotte light rail train on Aug. 22. The case in which the accused had 15 years of criminal history and diagnosed mental health issues has been gripping the nation’s attention after police on Friday released video of the incident.

“We need leaders at every level to acknowledge there is a crime crisis here in North Carolina and across the nation brought on by soft on crime policies,” said Michael Whatley, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in 2026. He joined Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, in sharing information.

Berger and Hall said they had met with first-term Democratic Gov. Josh Stein in the last 24 hours, a time that included the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. Respectful references to his death in Utah were sprinkled from the start and throughout.

The leaders of the Legislature said they would put together a bill package ending cashless bail; increase oversight and training for magistrates; and consider changes to how crimes tied to people with mental illness are handled.

On the latter, a reference was made to how domestic violence decisions are by a District Court judge rather than a magistrate.

The death penalty is not prohibited in North Carolina, though the last was Aug. 18, 2006. Samuel Flippen was executed by legal injection following his conviction for murder of his stepdaughter. The unwritten moratorium has existed because of litigation on fairness and methods.

Iryna Zarutska, 23, was killed while aboard the Lynx Blue Line light rail train about 10 p.m. Aug. 22 alongside Camden Road near the East/West station, according to the Charlotte Area Transit System video. Decarlos Brown Jr., arrested a 15th time in as many years, is charged with first-degree murder on the state level and charged on the federal level with committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system.

While in the local news immediately, the story went viral over the weekend and into this week when video was released by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police from cameras aboard the train.

Congressional proposals are in the works; state Republicans in the U.S. House have requested the chief judge in the district remove the magistrate signing off on cashless bail for Brown in January; and a probe of safety and budget for the transit system is underway by the state auditor.

North Carolina’s chapter of the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the nation has formally requested federal prosecutors charge Brown with a hate crime. The North Carolina chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said, “Video footage from the incident reportedly shows the alleged attacker, Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., pacing through the train and twice saying, ‘I got that white girl.’”

The Center Square has not confirmed the comments.

Berger said lawmakers want to stop task forces like the 2020 creation requested by then-Gov. Roy Cooper. He acknowledged the North Carolina Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice did not lead to laws, but it has served to shape decisions in the judicial process.

“Policing doesn’t need to be reimagined,” Berger said. “It needs to be respected; it needs to be funded.”

Berger and Hall took questions, respectively, on whether the federal grant cuts by second-term Republican President Donald Trump were in play on violent crime and if different gun policy could help. Each referred to what happened in Charlotte, Berger saying the problem wasn’t having police to arrest because he was more than a dozen times and the judicial process kept letting him back out; and Hall saying the killing was by knife, not gun.

“Everyone must take crime and violence seriously,” Berger said. “Our law and crime processes must reflect that.”