Gov. Josh Stein chose to sign House Bill 307, a controversial criminal justice bill, into law on Oct. 3.
The bill aims to make numerous controversial reforms to the state’s criminal justice system, following the August stabbing of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee, aboard a Charlotte light-rail train.
Reforms include efforts to streamline appeals for death penalty cases, requiring appeals to be heard within two years, limitations on pre-trial releases for individuals accused of crimes and additional restrictions and monitoring for violent offenders.
The bill also reduces magistrate and judge discretion and requires mandatory mental health evaluations for individuals experiencing a mental health crisis or those involuntarily committed within the last three years. Involuntary commitment proceedings are required to begin if an individual is determined to pose a danger by medical professionals.
The effort, led by N.C. House Republicans, passed both the House and Senate in September by a veto-proof majority, with several Democrats joining Republicans to pass the bill. Stein waited until the last possible minute to sign the bill, before it would be automatically approved into law without his signature.
Despite many Democrats’ support and Stein’s decision to sign the legislation, many remained critical. Stein argued for an increased focus on mental health, increasing violence prevention efforts and increasing both funding and training for police officers, as well as gun control efforts.
He also critiqued the decision to allow other methods used in the United States aside from lethal injection for execution if that method is unavailable and called for more reform, arguing the bill does not do enough to address crime.
Steven Greene, professor of political science, said Stein likely signed the bill due to re-election concerns and the likelihood of an override vote, regardless of whether he chose to veto the legislation.
“People are always kind of concerned about crime, and, you know, especially in the aftermath of a pretty shocking, honestly horrific crime like this… for him not to sign that bill is a really bad look politically,” Greene said, “let’s be honest, if he vetoes this sucker, it’s overridden. So then he gets the bad publicity and it didn’t make a difference.”
Irving Joyner, law professor at NC Central University in Durham, critiqued the reforms targeted at the death penalty, arguing that the reforms may be ineffective at addressing the issue of long timelines for individuals convicted of the death penalty.
“Very few executions have occurred. And then you have this history of people who have been criminally or capitally sentenced who languish in jail for 15, 20, 30 years without anything happening in their cases,” Joyner said, “You’re just going to have more of that occurring with this emphasis.”
Greene concurred with Joyner’s judgment.
“On the death penalty stuff, until we actually start doing it again, that’s just purely symbolic,” Greene said. “And the other thing about the death penalty stuff is, if we actually start doing it again, I mean, it’s a big deal.”
Joyner said the timelines imposed on appeals may lead to cases being rushed. Joyner added that efforts to streamline the process could affect the Racial Justice Act, allowing individuals to bring claims of racial discrimination to challenge the application of the death penalty.
“Kicking this up to the [N.C.] Supreme Court now to have to rush through a process with what, two years to resolve these post conviction claims?” Joyner said, “I’ve done post-conviction work and it takes time, and a rush to judgment on that end that occurs within two years is not something that makes sense to me after I have had that opportunity.”
Joyner argued that the bill and bail reforms have the potential to exacerbate systemic inequality in addition to disproportionately impacting low-income North Carolinians and people of color.
According to a 2020 N.C. Department of Justice report, despite the state’s population being 21.5% Black and 62.6% white, the state’s prison population is 51.5% Black, with a higher proportion among those serving sentences greater than 20 years. Black individuals were arrested at a rate greater than 2.5 times compared to white individuals.
“Once you are in jail, it’s obviously prison-like conditions and you stand to suffer grievous harms while you’re there, not only from the population that might be there, but a loss of job, a loss of housing, a loss of property, all kinds of losses you suffer,” Joyner said.
Joyner added, “Most of the low-income people who end up in the criminal justice system are racial minorities, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans… they will be disproportionately harmed.”
Reforms targeted at individuals experiencing mental illness may also result in people serving unnecessary time in jail due to court and police discretion, Joyner said.
Urging additional mental health support and additional reforms, Joyner added that he did not expect the bill to be effective at accomplishing its goal.
Greene said that the bill may be a mixed bag of successful and unsuccessful reforms, and that the balance between due process rights and public safety is always shifting.
“Is it possible that we had made it too easy for some violent offenders to get pre-trial release? Quite possible. And you know, is this going to mean that for some people it’s too hard? Probably, ” Greene said. “It’s always gonna be somewhat of a pendulum and we’re pushing it back towards more emphasis on public safety, less emphasis on the rights of the accused.”
