House Speaker Destin Hall, flanked by former RNC chair Michael Whatley and Senate President Phil Berger, address the murder of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska on Charlotte’s light rail system. (Photo: NCGA livestream)
Senate President Phil Berger and House Speaker Destin Hall held a rare joint press conference Thursday to announce plans to bring forth a comprehensive package in September to address violent crimes. The two legislative leaders connected the August 22 murder of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska on Charlotte’s light rail system with Wednesday’s assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on the campus of Utah Valley University.
“I’ll start by acknowledging today being September 11th and the tragic time in our country 24 years ago,” said Hall. “Unfortunately, as we stand here today, another tragic time in our country with the murder of Charlie Kirk yesterday, and for us here in North Carolina coming on the heels of a tragedy on the Charlotte transit system with the murder of the Ukrainian refugee.”
Hall said while they are still in the “homework stage” of determining what happened in Zarutska’s case, it was clear to him that it was largely the result of the judicial magistrate allowing the suspect, a repeat offender, to walk out of jail on the promise to reappear in court at a future date.
Michael Whatley, the Republicans’ presumptive candidate for the U.S. Senate seat in North Carolina in 2026, joined the press conference to honor Kirk’s legacy and find fault with former Gov. Roy Cooper, the Democratic candidate for Senate seat.
“There is a crime crisis here in North Carolina and across the country brought about by the left’s soft on crime policies. Roy Cooper has a history of being soft on crime,” said Whatley.
The former chair of the Republican National Committee said leaders in Democratic Party need to call out hateful rhetoric that is leading to violence.
Both Whatley and Berger pointed to the Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice (TREC), formed in 2020 by then-Gov. Cooper to address systemic racial bias in the criminal justice system.
Berger said that Zarutska’s life was tragically cut short because of the “atrocious policies pushed by out of touch politicians and court officials” that prioritize a “perverted vision” of equity and social justice.
TREC was tasked with submitting an annual report with legislative and municipal recommendations. It would be up to North Carolina’s legislature to decide which of those policies to advance.
But Berger said such recommendations could be problematic.
“What they do is they reflect an attitude on policing, an attitude on how things ought to be taking place, and those attitudes in many respects are the things that inform the kinds of decisions that were made by the magistrate in this case,” said Berger.
Restarting the death penalty
When the House and Senate return on September 22nd, Republican leadership will propose a package of policies to address crime.
“We can start by ensuring that Governor Stein and other members of the executive branch cannot establish any future task forces like the one Roy Cooper created that advanced weak-on-crime policies that kept Iryna’s murderer on the streets,” said Berger.
Berger also pledged to personally look for ways to restart North Carolina’s death penalty.
“Republicans in the General Assembly have attempted to restart the death penalty over the past decade and a half but those efforts have been stymied at every turn,” said the Senate leader.
There has been a de-facto moratorium on the death penalty in North Carolina for almost 20 years. President Trump said on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday that the suspect in the Charlotte case should be given a quick trial and the death penalty.
“There can be no other option,” Trump wrote.
Screengrab from President Donald Trump’s Truth Social Account on September 10, 2025.
Berger said legislators would also work to end cashless bail and keep repeat offenders in jail.
Speaker Hall said the forthcoming legislation would include more oversight of magistrates.
“Looking at the way that we select magistrates, making sure that the folks who are making these decisions are paying attention to what they’re doing and that they’re trying to serve public safety, not some left-wing interest,” Hall said.
Hall said the legislature would also examine the budgets of both Charlotte and Mecklenburg County to determine if any outside grants may have influenced magistrates to oppose cash bail. Advocate for bail reform have argued previously that cash bail disproportionately impacts the poor.
“Ultimately, we’re dealing with two local governments that in my opinion have lost institutional control of their areas,” said Hall.
Neither Berger nor Hall suggested that the new legislative package would include gun control.
“You know the murderer in Charlotte killed this young lady with a knife. A gun had nothing to do with it,” Hall told reporters. “Again, it’s a problem of local officials being soft on crime.”