The Caucus: Not on My Watch

Dodging the Bullet

When Gov. Josh Stein signed the Republicans’ crime bill into law on October 3, he released a short video explaining his rationale. 

Lawmakers passed the bill, dubbed Iryna’s Law, on September 23 in reaction to the brutal slaying of Iryna Zarutska on Charlotte’s light rail a month earlier. Her killer, Decarlos Brown Jr., suffers from schizophrenia. The law will require more defendants to be evaluated for mental health issues after their arrests. 

“That’s a good thing, and why I have signed it into law,” Stein said. But Stein didn’t like everything in the bill. “Most alarming,” he said, “the General Assembly sprung a last-minute amendment that aims to bring about execution by firing squad to North Carolina. It’s barbaric.” 

Stein made a promise: “There will be no firing squads in North Carolina during my time as governor.” 

It’s not clear how Stein intends to keep that promise. A spokesperson told The Assembly that the governor “is taking a close look at the requirements under Iryna’s Law and is focused on taking steps to take meaningful action to keep people safe.”

North Carolina hasn’t executed anyone since 2006. Long-stalled litigation over Racial Justice Act claims and the state’s lethal injection protocols has led to a de facto moratorium. The amendment Stein mentioned—introduced by Republican Senate leader Phil Berger—aims to effectively circumvent the lethal injection lawsuits. 

It doesn’t explicitly mention firing squads. Instead, it says that if lethal injection is deemed unconstitutional or isn’t available, the secretary of the Department of Adult Correction has to choose an execution method approved in another state. That appears to leave several possibilities: firing squad, nitrogen hypoxia, electric chair, and the gas chamber. 

If an execution is scheduled, the secretary—a Stein appointee—could keep the governor’s promise by opting for a non-firing-squad alternative, though none is particularly genteel. North Carolina hasn’t used a gas chamber since 1998 and hasn’t electrocuted anyone since 1936. State prison officials did not immediately respond to questions about how much it would cost to restart these execution methods. 

Five states have recently authorized the use of nitrogen hypoxia, in which inmates inhale nitrogen through a mask until they suffocate. Critics have said this method might amount to “torture.” Five states also allow firing squads, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. South Carolina has used it twice this year. 

Stein might also hope to dodge the issue altogether. At most, he’ll be governor for seven more years, and it’s possible none of the state’s 122 death row inmates will be eligible for execution before he leaves office.  

But Iryna’s Law aims to speed up appeals. If it succeeds, Stein might find himself boxed into an uncomfortable corner.  

— Jeffrey Billman and Michael Hewlett

Thanks for reading The Caucus, a politics newsletter anchored by Bryan Anderson. Reach us with tips or ideas at politics@theassemblync.com.

Did someone forward this to you? Sign up here to get The Assembly’s twice-weekly politics newsletter.

Stein’s Death Penalty Backlash

Before Berger unveiled his amendment to expand execution methods, Iryna’s Law appeared likely to pass with broad bipartisan support. Democrats believed Stein would sign it, according to legislative sources. At least half of Senate Democrats planned to back the bill, as did many House Democrats. 

But after Republicans passed the amendment, most Senate Dems walked off the floor, and those who remained voted against the bill. The next day, House Democrats faced a dilemma. Stein’s office didn’t tell them whether his plans had changed, several Democrats said. 

Ultimately, 17 Democrats voted for the bill. Most came from Mecklenburg County (where Zarutska was killed), Wake County (whose district attorney, Lorrin Freeman, lobbied for the bill before Berger added his amendment), or competitive districts (Dem leaders told them to “vote for the bill so as to be seen as tough on crime,” one source said). 

Robert Reives, the House’s Democratic leader, also voted for it, though he called Berger’s amendment “cynical. … It makes me wonder who we are as a government.”

Senate Republicans have a veto-proof supermajority. In the House, Democrats can sustain a veto—but only if all of them show up and vote together. With 17 defections, it seemed likely that a veto would be easily overridden. Stein’s decision to sign Iryna’s Law—or allow it to become law without his signature—was seen as a fait accompli. 

But perhaps not. According to multiple sources familiar with the situation, Reives’ office believed his caucus would have sustained a veto—at least in the short term. Over time, that might get dicier, and Republicans could have called an override vote at any point before the end of next year. A member might also miss a vote due to illness or, um, other unfortunate circumstances (see below). 

Senate Democrats sent Stein a letter imploring him to veto a bill they called “fundamentally flawed, legally questionable, and morally wrong,” according to a draft obtained by The Assembly. (A Senate Dem said Stein was “pissed” when he received it.)

Instead, Stein signed the legislation, despite saying it lacked “ambition or vision” and contained a “barbaric” death penalty provision. His decision left some Democrats and their allies fuming. 

“Governor Stein chose cruelty over justice,” Deborah Dicks Maxwell, president of the North Carolina NAACP, said in a statement. 

The governor’s loudest Democratic critic—publicly, anyway—has been Sen. Graig Meyer of Orange County. Stein’s “decision and his statement on it are such a terrible example of what happens when you abandon principle,” Meyer posted on Substack.

In an interview, Meyer said this episode was indicative of Stein’s term so far. “He won’t touch anything that is an ambitious issue,” he said. “He thinks about what he’s afraid of, what he doesn’t want to touch, and he works backward from there.”

The governor’s office did not respond to The Assembly’s questions about the politics of Iryna’s Law.

— Jeffrey Billman

Brockman Charged

N.C. Rep. Cecil Brockman, a Guilford County Democrat, is facing bipartisan calls for his resignation after he was charged with multiple sex crimes.

Brockman, 41, was arrested Wednesday and charged with two counts each of indecent liberties with a child and statutory rape. Arrest records show the alleged victim was between the ages of 13 and 15. The offenses are alleged to have taken place on Aug. 15.

Brockman was held without bail in the High Point jail and was scheduled to make his first appearance Thursday at the Guilford County Courthouse. That hearing was postponed at the last minute, when a bailiff said Brockman had a “medical emergency” and was taken to a local hospital.

Democrats including Stein, Roy Cooper, and Anderson Clayton called on him to resign, as did Republican House Speaker Destin Hall.

— Joe Killian

Meck Yes?

By fall 2020, the Charlotte Moves task force was well on its way to putting together a nearly $20 billion plan to meet the city’s transportation needs for the next 30 years.  

There would be rail extensions—including a long-awaited line to north Mecklenburg—as well as road improvements, better bus service, and even an ambitious “micro transit” system that uses on-demand vans to fill gaps. Pieces were falling into place.

That September, the city’s chief financial officer presented the group with a long menu of financing choices that included property and sales taxes, revenue bonds, motor vehicle fees, development fees, federal loans, special tax districts, and private money.

“We really didn’t consider them; I’ll be honest with you,” Harvey Gantt, a Democrat and former mayor, told The Assembly. “The most equitable tax is the sales tax.”

— Jim Morrill

Around the State

Apex Mayor and Town Council Navigate an Increasingly Strained Relationship (INDY Week). Hope Mills commissioners censure one of their own over alleged discriminatory comments (CityView). John Lowery, Chairman of Lumbee Tribe, Will Fill Brother’s Vacant N.C. House Seat (Border Belt Independent). Two NC lawyers join Trump-backed prosecution of former FBI director James Comey (The News & Observer).

Let us know what’s on your radar at politics@theassemblync.com.