With a video message on Friday, Gov. Josh Stein announced that he has signed the criminal justice reform bill known as "Iryna's Law."
The General Assembly passed House Bill 307 in response to the widely publicized stabbing murder of Iryna Zarutska on board a Charlotte light rail car.
It included a slew of reforms, including requiring that courts hear appeals in death penalty cases within two years, requiring that magistrates order that certain defendants be evaluated for involuntary commitments, adding 10 prosecutors in Mecklenburg County and requiring that magistrates provide written explanations if they allow some defendants the opportunity to post bail.
In his message, Stein said the law focused too much on people's ability to post bail rather than the threat defendants might pose. Stein said he signed the law because of provisions requiring judges and magistrates to more carefully weigh their pre-trial release decisions for people who have been charged with violent crimes or those who have been charged with Class 1 misdemeanor or higher charges three times over the past decade.
"That's a good thing and why I have signed it into law," Stein said.
Rep. Tricia Cotham, R-Mecklenburg, released a statement Friday afternoon celebrating the signing of House Bill 307. Cotham said she was happy about the bail provisions of the legislation, which would, she wrote, keep dangerous people off the streets.
"I’m especially proud that, through our efforts, this law provides additional prosecutors for Mecklenburg County, giving our local law enforcement the tools they need to fight violent crime," Cotham wrote.
Still, Stein spent much of his message slamming the legislation.
"I'm troubled by its lack of ambition or vision. It simply does not do enough to keep you safe," Stein said.
Death penalty controversy
The governor said the "most alarming" part of the legislation is a death penalty provision Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, introduced on the floor.
Berger's amendment said lethal injection is North Carolina's preferred method of execution, but that the state must choose another method used elsewhere in the United States if that is unavailable. That opens the door to executions via electrocution, firing squad or suffocation with nitrogen gas.
"It's barbaric. There will be no firing squads in North Carolina during my time as governor," Stein said.
North Carolina's most recent execution took place in 2006. There are 122 people on death row, some of whom have had appeals awaiting hearings for decades.
The death penalty provisions broke what had felt like a potential moment of bipartisanship around the bill. After Berger introduced it, a handful of Senate Democrats left the floor instead of casting votes on the legislation.
Berger, for his part, said he had been indicating for weeks that he intended to use the bill to restart executions in North Carolina.
"There are some folks who were out there who were perfectly fine 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 told reporters last week.
Calling for more reform
The General Assembly, Stein said, should return to Raleigh to take up additional criminal justice reforms like adding well-trained police, adding violence prevention measures and taking steps to keep violent or mentally ill people from accessing firearms.
"Let's use comprehensive background checks to keep guns out of the hands of violent criminals and dangerous people. And let's give family members and law enforcement the power to seek to temporarily remove a gun from someone who is a danger to others and themselves," Stein said.
Stein also called on the General Assembly to take steps to boost the state's mental health system. That would start, he said, with fully funding the state's Medicaid program, which saw reductions in how much providers are paid for services this week amid a three-way disagreement between Stein and Republicans in the state's House of Representatives and Senate.
"It's time to get real about the causes of violence and to take meaningful action to address them," Stein said.
Friday was the last day on which Stein could either sign House Bill 307 or veto it. He also had the option of doing neither, allowing it to become law without his signature.
