The Democratic governor of North Carolina finally took action following the brutal killing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska as she traveled on a train in the state.
Zarutska, 23, was murdered in Charlotte on August 22 after being stabbed in the neck. Career criminal Decarlos Brown is accused of killing her in the frenzied attack.
On Friday, Governor Josh Stein signed into law a criminal justice measure in direct response to the horrific stabbing of Iryna, naming it ‘Iryna’s Law’ in her memory.
It will increase checks on criminals being let out on bail, brings an end to cashless bail for some violent crimes and most repeat offenders.
It also limits the discretion magistrates and judges have in making pretrial release decisions, gives the state chief justice the ability to suspend magistrates and seeks to ensure more defendants undergo mental health evaluations.
Republicans in the state and even President Donald Trump had blamed the death of Zarutska on Democrats and their soft on crime policies. The outrage intensified with the release of security video showing the attack.
Brown, 34, was well-known to law enforcement having spent most of his life in and out of prison on a litany of offences.
He was charged with misusing 911 in January, when he told cops he believed someone had given him a ‘man-made’ material that controlled his actions.
Zarutska, seen here, was murdered in Charlotte, North Carolina, on August 22 after being stabbed in the neck, suspect Decarlos Brown is accused of killing her
The outrage from Republicans only intensified with the release of security video showing the attack, seen here
He was released on no bail and was pending trial when he allegedly stabbed Zaruska to death.
Stein said he supported the bill because it would examine ‘people who may post unusual risk of violence before determining their bail’.
He did criticize parts of it, saying lawmakers in the Republican-controlled state legislature had failed to approve his own public-safety proposals which included a pay rise for police officers.
‘I’m troubled by its lack of ambition or vision,’ Stein said during a short video statement. ‘It simply does not do enough to keep you safe.’
He also blasted a portion of a section that seeks to restart executions in North Carolina, where capital punishment was last carried out in 2006.
That amendment was tacked onto the bill last month at the last minute by leader of the State Senate Phil Berger.
It forced some Democrats in the Senate to walk out in protest. The amendment said if lethal injections can’t be procured, the state would execute an inmate by another method ‘adopted by another state’.
Governor Josh Stein signed into law a criminal justice measure in direct response to the horrific stabbing of Iryna, naming it ‘Iryna’s Law’ in her memory
Charlotte-area Republican state Rep. Tricia Cotham said: ‘Finally, we are getting dangerous criminals off our streets so we can make sure no one else suffers the heartbreak that Iryna Zarutska’s family endured.’
The state NAACP chapter condemned Stein’s bill-signing, saying that he ‘chose cruelty over justice, and the legislators from both parties who pushed it forward are equally responsible for this shameful failure of leadership.’
Zarutska had only recently arrived in the US ‘seeking safety from the war and hoping for a new beginning’, her family said on a GoFundMe page.
Brown, meanwhile, is a career criminal who has spent most of his life in and out of prison, a Daily Mail review of police records found.
He served five years in prison for a 2014 armed robbery and was released in September, 2020 – when he quickly resumed a life of crime.
Just months after his release from prison, on February, 2021, Brown was arrested for assaulting his sister in Charlotte and leaving her with minor injuries, according to police records obtained by the Daily Mail.
Decarlos Brown has spent most of his life in and out of prison. Brown served five years in prison for a 2014 armed robbery and was released in September, 2020 – when he quickly resumed a life of crime
That same month, he was also arrested for injury to personal property and trespassing.
A police report from that incident said Brown ‘returned to the address after being told he was not allowed back and kicked and damaged the front door of the listed victim’s residence’.
In July 2022, Brown was then arrested again for a domestic disturbance.
‘[Brown] was arrested for disorderly conduct. The suspect was yelling and cursing, causing a disturbance and drawing the attention of multiple tenants while on the property the call for service was located,’ read the police report.
Brown’s arrest records go as back as 2007, when he was still a minor.
Over the next seven years, he was arrested at least six times for crimes including felony larceny, robbery with a dangerous weapon and communicating threats.
According to the Charlotte Observer, most of the charges he faced during that time were dropped.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .