Democrats walk out of vote as NC Senate calls for alternate methods of execution
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- NC Senate passed crime bill after GOP added death penalty amendment Monday.
- Democrats walked out in protest, citing opposition to capital punishment changes.
- Bill directs agency to implement alternate execution methods if needed in future.
A Republican-drafted crime bill introduced in response to the fatal stabbing on Charlotte’s light rail last month appeared to have bipartisan support on Monday until an amendment seeking to resume executions in North Carolina prompted Democrats to walk out.
Senate lawmakers spent hours debating legislation on Monday, and early in the day, debate over the GOP’s crime bill seemed to indicate that many Democrats were on board with the bill, with some saying on the floor that they intended to support it when time came for a vote.
When lawmakers returned to the bill after passing other legislation Monday evening, Senate leader Phil Berger introduced an amendment that would direct the N.C. Department of Adult Correction to implement alternative methods of execution used in other states if North Carolina’s only legally allowed method on the books right now, lethal injection, was ruled by courts to be unconstitutional, or was otherwise unable to be administered.
Executions have been halted in North Carolina since 2006. One of the most recent attempts to restart them came earlier this year when state House members called for authorizing the use of the electric chair and the firing squad, but their bill failed to clear a key legislative deadline.
Berger indicated earlier this month that the death penalty would be a part of the policies Republicans would put forward in response to the fatal stabbing of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska on Charlotte’s Lynx Blue Line on Aug. 22. During a news conference on Sept. 11, Berger said he was “personally” looking at ways lawmakers could act to restart the death penalty.
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Apart from a provision reducing the amount of time allowed for death penalty appeals, however, the crime bill as it was released on Sunday did not contain any measures directly dealing with trying to restart executions.
Democrats strongly criticized Berger’s decision to include the amendment late in the day Monday, after hours of debate on the bill. Multiple Democrats said they had planned to vote for the bill, but would not do so now, due to their opposition to the death penalty generally, or how this bill would seek to change and speed up the process for appeals.
Several Democrats walked out of the chamber, refusing to vote on the bill. It ultimately passed in a 28-8 vote, and now goes to the House, which is expected to take it up Tuesday.
After the voting session, Berger reminded reporters that he had foreshadowed Monday’s amendment — that Republicans were looking for ways to resume executions — in the Sept. 11 press conference.
“So, nobody should be surprised that we moved in that direction,” he said.
Democrats refuse to vote on the bill
Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, a Raleigh Democrat, said he thought that lawmakers from both parties “had a shared interest here in focusing on public safety and making sure that similar tragedies like the one that happened in Charlotte would not happen again.”
Another Democrat, Sen. Michael Garrett of Greensboro, echoed other members of his party in saying it was exploitative for Republicans to insert a controversial provision seeking to restart executions in a bill that Democrats otherwise supported, and with the name “Iryna’s Law” honoring the victim in last month’s stabbing.
Garrett said the move was “beneath the dignity of this body.”
Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed, a Charlotte Democrat who often leads his party’s efforts on criminal justice legislation, said earlier on Monday he had been working closely with Republicans on trying to amend some of the bill’s provisions. By the end of the day, he said he was frustrated he could no longer support it.
He said he was “taken aback” by Berger’s amendment, and brought up concerns about innocent people being sent to death row.
“I don’t know about many of you, but my faith teaches me that if you take one person’s life, it’s as if you’ve taken the life of the entirety of humanity, and if you save one person’s life, it’s as if you’ve saved the life of the entirety of humanity,” Mohammed said.
Republicans defend their effort to restart executions
Sen. Ralph Hise, a Spruce Pine Republican, said he watched the video of Zarutska’s stabbing that was released by local authorities “over and over again, and reached a conclusion in my soul that there must be justice.”
“And to take a life, there is a justice that involves capital punishment,” Hise said. “This isn’t because of the party I represent, this isn’t because of other things, this is because of what I saw, and what I know in my spirit.”
Hise said the failure in this case was a legal system that “does not offer appropriate consequences.”
“Why does crime and evil grow? Because there’s no consequences for them,” Hise said.
Berger told reporters he understands some people are opposed to the death penalty.
He said while there are “reasonable disagreements” to be had about capital punishment, lawmakers should remember that it remains the law in North Carolina.
“It just so happens that the provisions that we have, and the decisions that have been made, have rendered that death penalty inoperable, as if we didn’t have one,” Berger said.
This story was originally published September 22, 2025 at 7:52 PM.
