What Iryna's Law should do
With the legislature back in town, here are five fixes that would make North Carolina safer
The General Assembly is back in Raleigh today, and one of the first orders of business is a legislative response to the horrific killing of Iryna Zarutska on the Charlotte light rail line.
House Speaker Destin Hall says “Iryna’s Law” will be filed this week1 to keep violent criminals off the streets and behind bars. I’m glad they’re moving. A few weeks ago, I said the time would come to talk about fixes. That time is now.
We aren’t guessing at the failures anymore. The man charged in Iryna’s killing had 14 arrests, and served only five years for an armed robbery conviction. His mother says she begged for long-term care to keep him off the streets and hit a wall.
All that doesn’t point to a single bad decision, it points to a broken system. One that:
Releases people who pose an obvious danger
Moves too slowly on the worst cases
Treats violent crime too lightly
Lacks real long-term options for the criminally insane.
Here’s the framework I believe Iryna’s Law should follow. I am not well-versed …