The N.C. House of Representatives voted in favor of the criminal justice package known as Iryna's Law on Tuesday, sending the bill to Gov. Josh Stein's desk including a controversial death penalty provision that was inserted late Monday.
Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, introduced an amendment to Iryna's Law late Monday afternoon stating that lethal injection is North Carolina's preferred method of execution.
If that isn't available for whatever reason, the amendment says, the Department of Adult Corrections must decide on a different execution method within months. That method must be one that is already in use in another state, meaning it could include electrocution, the firing squad or suffocation via nitrogen gas.
"Nobody should be surprised that we moved in that direction," Berger told reporters Monday evening.
The bill is named for Iryna Zurutska, the victim of a Charlotte stabbing that received national attention. House Bill 307 already included provisions requiring appellate courts to hear capitol punishment appeals within two years and requiring appeals to take place in the county of conviction instead of Wake County.
During a House debate that lasted nearly two hours Tuesday, several Democrats called on their colleagues to take more action to prevent crime in response to Zurutska's slaying. House Minority Leader Robert Reives, D-Chatham, rued that the death penalty provision made it harder for the bill to receive bipartisan support.
"Changes to the death penalty in a bill that is allegedly about trying to help the problems that fix this is cynical in ways that hurt me. It makes me wonder who we are as a government," Reives said on the House floor.
The House approved Iryna's Law by a margin of 82 to 30. With the Senate's approval on Monday, it will now head to Gov. Josh Stein's desk.
"For too long, activist judges and magistrates have turned dangerous criminals loose, endangering lives and spreading chaos in our communities. That ends now. Iryna Zarutska’s murder is a tragic reminder of what’s at stake," Speaker of the House Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, said in a written statement.
Death penalty provision from the Senate
The new death penalty provisions about method of execution were introduced in a late Monday afternoon amendment from Berger. He said it was the second piece needed to restore capital punishment in North Carolina, after the bill initially included language limiting how long a capitol punishment appeal can take.
"It just so happens that the provisions that we have and the decisions that have been made have rendered that death penalty inoperable and, you know, as if we didn't have one. So I would say that there are some folks who were out there perfectly fine with us having the death penalty on the books but not having a death penalty that actually gets implemented in a way that is supported by the people," Berger said.
During Monday's Senate debate about House Bill 307, Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed, D-Mecklenburg, had described a meeting with Zarutska's family in which they took great care to teach him how to pronounce her first name and described the kind of person she was.
After Monday's session, Mohammed described frustration with how the amendment shifted his ability to support a bill that also addressed who should receive what bond, mandates mental health evaluations for some defendants and eliminates the written promise to appear from the state's pre-trial release categories.
The discussion with Zarutska's family hadn't covered their stance on the death penalty, Mohammed told reporters. But, he said, "I can't see anything in this bill that would have saved Iryna's life dealing with (the) death penalty."
Seven Democrats walked off the floor Monday instead of voting on Iryna's Law after the death penalty amendment was approved.
During a press gaggle after Monday's session, Senate Minority Leader Sydney Batch, D-Wake, said it was an intentional decision to not engage with political gamesmanship.
"This is a bill where we could have had a bipartisan movement together to actually make our community safer and it was hijacked for political gain, and that is a huge disappointment," Batch said.
Debate in the House
Much of Tuesday's debate in the House focused on Democrats' concerns that the bill fails to address the root causes of crime, including mental illness.
Rep. Marcia Morey, D-Durham, urged Republicans to take steps on crime like improving involuntary commitment procedures, getting additional money for ankle monitors or even funding better light bulbs on Charlotte's light rail system. It is important, Morey said, that the state's approach to crime considers the events leading up to it.
"We grieve the murder. It was senseless, it was horrible. But what you are voting on today does nothing to take it back or would have prevented it. Let's get smart on crime," said Morey, a former chief district court judge.
Rep. Brenden Jones, R-Columbus, said that he had had an emotional reaction to seeing the video of Zarutska's slaying and that mercy doesn't offer a solution for what happened on that light rail car.
"We need to make sure that we're doing the right thing to send those who are doing these evil, evil crimes and give them the punishment they so justly deserve," said Jones, the House majority leader.
Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, focused her remarks on the death penalty aspect of the legislation. She described the alternative methods of execution, including how firing squads can miss their intended target, how gruesome electrocutions are and how witnesses of a recent execution by nitrogen gas described it resembling torture.
"Restarting the death penalty and you and I and the rest of the state of North Carolina having these people executed in our name, I don't know that you want to go there. I'm going to be a no," Harrison said.
