State lawmakers are examining ways to restart the death penalty in North Carolina — one of a series of possible legislative moves in the wake of a fatal stabbing in Charlotte. Senate leader Phil Berger discussed the effort Thursday at a press conference alongside House Speaker Destine Hall, where the two offered broad strokes of proposed legislation they plan to file later this month.
Executions are legal in North Carolina but have been put on hold since 2006 due to a series of lawsuits. But the practice has been in the spotlight as lawmakers seek to respond to the fatal stabbing of Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian, in Charlotte last month.
President Donald Trump has focused on the stabbing as he seeks to find support for his push to send the military into American cities to conduct law enforcement. In a recent social media post, he called for the death penalty in the Charlotte case.
“We cannot allow a depraved criminal element of violent repeat offenders to continue spreading destruction and death throughout our country,” Trump said in a video statement released by the White House this week. “We have to respond with force and strength. We have to be vicious just like they are. It’s the only thing they understand.”
Democrats have seized on the case to criticize Trump for freezing billions of dollars in federal grants for law enforcement and for mental health — part of Trump’s cost-cutting efforts by the new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. But Democrats wield limited power in North Carolina, where the strongest branch of government is the Republican-led legislature.
And after Trump called on social media for the death penalty for Zarutska’s killer, writing that “there can be no other option,” state Republican lawmakers rushed to announce they’re looking to find options to start executing people again.
“We cannot keep our citizens safe if our policies favor criminals over public safety,” Berger said. “I personally am looking into ways to restart the death penalty here in North Carolina. For far too long, there’s been a judicially imposed moratorium on the death penalty by activist judges.”
But others are skeptical that a hypothetical threat of execution would’ve worked to stop the stabbing in this case — which according to investigators was committed by a homeless man whose family says they sought repeatedly to get him help for schizophrenia — or in other murder cases.
“It will not increase public safety, it will not make law enforcement any safer, it will not decrease rates of homicide,” said Noel Nickle, executive director of the N.C. Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. “None of those things will happen with strengthening the death penalty in our state, or resuming executions.”
Violent crime has plummeted in recent decades, even as many states including North Carolina have stopped executing people. In 1993, the U.S. experienced 747 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents, according to Pew Research. By 2022, violent crime had been cut in half, dropping to 380 crimes for every 100,000 residents.
And according to an FBI report last month, homicides dropped by another 15% nationwide from 2023 to 2024. Other crimes — including rapes, assaults and burglaries — also declined in 2024.
But amid the rising pressure from the White House to make crime a political issue — and with a looming 2026 U.S. Senate race in which public safety could be a key campaign talking point — North Carolina Republican leaders have vowed they will seek new ways to start executing prisoners once more.
There wasn’t as much appetite prior to Trump’s comments. Earlier this year House Republican leadership killed a bill to allow for firing squad and electrical chair executions. The bill passed two committees with support from rank-and-file GOP lawmakers, but it was never allowed up for a vote on the House floor.
When WRAL asked Berger this week what specifically lawmakers believe they can do to restart executions, he said the details are still being ironed out.
“We’ve not settled on exactly what’s going to be in the package,” he said, referring to a planned bill, which could also seek to roll back criminal justice reforms passed in recent years or enact stricter rules for bail and pre-trial release.
More details could become public when the legislature returns to session in late September.