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USA - North Carolina. Legislature Passes Sweeping Criminal Law Legislation in Effort to Restart Executions

October 1, 2025:

October 01, 2025 - North Carolina. Legislature Passes Sweeping Criminal Law Legislation in Effort to Restart Executions

On September 23, 2025, North Carolina lawmakers approved and forwarded to Governor Josh Stein for signature House Bill 307 — also known as “Iryna’s Law” — which proposes sweeping changes to the state’s criminal laws. HB 307 imposes stricter pretrial release conditions, requires involuntary mental health evaluations for defendants under certain circumstances, shortens the timeline for capital case appeals, and provides an alternative to the current method of execution — lethal injection. North Carolina last carried out an execution in 2006. Legislators say the legislation is a response to the death of Iryna Zarutska, who was killed on Charlotte, North Carolina’s public transit system in August 2025.

Among the bill’s most significant provisions are changes to North Carolina’s death penalty system. The legislation establishes strict timelines for pending appeals and motions in capital cases, requiring any filing more than 24 months old to be scheduled for a hearing by December 2026, and no later than December 2027. This expedited timeline would require North Carolina courts to hear and decide nearly all of the state’s more than 120 death row cases in the next 2 years, a feat that risks wrongful executions in a state where 12 people have been exonerated from death row since 1972. In direct response to Ms. Zarutska’s death, HB 307 adds a new aggravating factor that allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty when a capital felony is committed against someone on public transportation.

Notably, the legislation also changes the state’s available methods of execution. In line with state lawmakers’ efforts to resume executions, HB 307 includes language that removes the prohibition against electrocution and lethal gas, while retaining lethal injection as the primary method of execution. If lethal injection is deemed unconstitutional, the new bill adds provisions that allow the use of any execution method approved by another state, so long as the U.S. Supreme Court has not declared the method to be unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court has never found a method of execution to be unconstitutional.

Critics of this legislation have objected to the state’s attempt to restart executions and questioned whether the death penalty deters crime. “The bill does nothing to deter crime or address the root causes of violence. It does nothing to increase public safety. Instead, it doubles down on a racially biased, error-prone system that disproportionately punishes people of color and people with serious mental illness,” said Noel Nickle, Executive Director of North Carolina for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. North Carolina Senator Mujtaba Mohammed also expressed concerns ahead of the state Senate vote which passed the legislation, telling his colleagues that this bill “exploits grief for headlines, clicks and votes,” adding that victims “deserve dignity, not weaponization. It’s not about politics, it’s about respect.”

The bill also seeks to eliminate cashless bail for certain crimes and restricts the discretion of judges and magistrates in pretrial release. The bill establishes a new protocol requiring judicial officers to order mental health evaluations under specific circumstances. Evaluations would be made mandatory if a defendant charged with a violent offense has been involuntarily committed within the past 3 years, or if a judicial official believes the defendant poses a danger to themselves or others. State Representative Sara Stevens said this bill is about prevention. “By requiring mental health evaluations and stricter pretrial conditions for violent offenders, we are taking decisive steps to stop tragedies before they happen.” The bill also directs the North Carolina Collaboratory to study the intersectionality of mental health and the criminal legal system for both juveniles and adults, the use of house arrest as a pretrial condition, and methods of execution not already employed by the state.

Gov. Stein has until October 3, 2025, to either sign this legislation, not sign the legislation and allow it to become law, or to veto it. If Gov. Stein vetoes the legislation, the North Carolina Legislature can try and override his veto with a 3/5 majority. Three days ahead of this deadline, Gov. Stein indicated he is still reviewing the legislation, telling reporters “it’s just an immensely complicated law, and it’s an immensely complicated subject: how do we promote public safety, and I want to make sure that the law is making us safer instead of making us less safe, and so I’m doing a thorough review as I hope people would expect me to do.”

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/north-carolina-legislature-passes-sweeping-criminal-law-legislation-in-effort-to-restart-executions