Raleigh, NC – Two weeks ago during the House debate on Iryna’s Law, a friend texted me that Democratic Rep. Marcia Morey was mocking Republicans for supposed hypocrisy. Iryna’s Law — a criminal justice bill to limit bail and ensure that more defendants undergo mental health evaluations — was a direct response to the brutal stabbing of Iryna Zarutska on the Charlotte light rail in August. In the discussion, Morey argued that Republicans’ “Christian values go down the tube” when they introduce legislation like Iryna’s Law and use words like “monster” to describe Iryna’s murderer.
But Morey is deflecting from the real issue. The question is not whether it is opposed to Christian values to call a deranged lunatic “a monster.” Rather, it is: What is the response to this heinous act? If Morey was truly interested in pursuing the key Christian value in this case, she would be seeking justice for Iryna.
Seeking justice for Iryna means taking a hard look at how the North Carolina justice system failed to protect her in the first place — and how it did so at the explicit recommendation of three of the highest-ranking government officials in our state: then-Gov. Roy Cooper, Associate Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls, and then-Attorney General Josh Stein.
In 2020, Roy Cooper established the Task Force For Racial Equity in Social Justice in response to the death of George Floyd. Anita Earls and Josh Stein co-chaired the task force, and Rep. Marcia Morey was a member. The stated purpose of the task force was to “to recommend solutions to end disparate outcomes in the criminal justice system, mitigate the effects of bias and discrimination, and increase accountability in law enforcement and criminal justice.”
The task force made 125 recommendations for the police, the courts, and corrections. Those recommendations included: Eliminating cash bail for misdemeanors “unless there is a risk to public safety,” decriminalizing felony drug possession, decriminalizing minor crimes (including trespassing and shoplifting), requiring equity training for prosecutors and implicit bias training for parole offices and jury system actors, raising the minimum age of juvenile court to 12 years old (currently it is 6 yrs. old), eliminating enhanced sentencing requirements for habitual felons, allowing judges to reduce sentences for previously prosecuted cases based on good behavior, and prohibiting the death penalty for anyone under 21 years of age. Currently 18 years and older can receive the death penalty.
It was lenient policies like these that allowed Iryna’s murderer — a 14-time offender — to be free on the streets and kill her.
Why did Cooper, Earls, and Stein approve policies that amounted to an abdication of their duty to protect North Carolinians? The answer is both philosophical and political. It is philosophical because the ideas guiding the recommendations are rooted in critical theory, which teaches that truth and morality are not objective and that crime is the product of power imbalances and social inequalities like racism.
The answer is also political because critical theory has also been massively influential in pop culture and in primary and higher education in America during the last half century. As a millennial, many of my peers have been convinced — going back to childhood — that holding criminals accountable, regardless of race or any other factor, is uncompassionate.
And it is why people like Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, who after Iryna’s murder made a statement demonstrating more compassion for the murderer than the victim, are voted into office. In response to the stabbing, Mayor Lyles said, “What I have come to understand is that [the alleged murderer] has long struggled with mental health and appears to have suffered a crisis. This was the unfortunate and tragic outcome.” She went on to say that the city of Charlotte “will never arrest our way out of issues such as homelessness and mental health.”
The Bible teaches that justice is grounded in objective truth, as it says that we should love the things that God loves and hate the things that He hates (Romans 12:9). It is quite clear to everyone that God hates murder (Exodus 20:13). True morality, God says, is to love our neighbor as ourself and to care for the vulnerable (Matthew 22:39; James 1:27). Because God is good, He also hates evil and violence (Psalm 11:5). At the right time, He himself punishes and stops all evil (Ecclesiastes 3:17).
Justice also demands that a wrongdoer be given his due. God says that the government should punish evildoers (Romans 13:3-4). All facets of the criminal justice system — police, courts, and corrections — should pursue this end for the good of society and the people who live in it.
God does also call us to compassion. It is surely true that many criminals came from broken homes and had devastating childhoods (“Adverse Childhood Experiences” is how the task force refers to them). It is also surely true that criminals experience many injustices and challenges in their lives. But the idea that compassion means we should not hold people responsible for their own actions does not serve society, and it does not serve wrongdoers either. Sufficient evidence shows that enhanced sentencing reduces crime. Furthermore, consequences deter evil actions — this concept is biblical and it is also basic psychology.
For Christians, the kind of compassion we are to have for criminals leads us to remember that they are fellow image-bearers of God despite their evil deeds, and therefore to treat them humanely and to seek to restore their souls by leading them to faith in Christ. That is exactly what Erika Kirk did when she forgave her husband’s murderer.
The toxic and twisted form of compassion that denies objective moral right and wrong, and shifts blame away from the individuals responsible is a recipe for societal decline. The book of Judges in the Bible describes an evil time where people “did what was right in their own eyes.” This led to widespread violence. The book culminates in a disturbing incident where a young woman was raped to death by a gang of wicked men. The people were shocked by this heinous act and were urged to speak out against it.
Today Americans must speak out and make it clear — with our voice and our vote — that we will not tolerate uncontrolled crime and violence in our society. Holding people accountable is a weighty task. Doing so grieves God, who says “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live” (Ezekiel 33:11). For this reason, we need to elect leaders with stiff spines who understand that while compassion is important, it does not mean the removal of consequences.
The values that Cooper, Stein, Earls, and Morey used in making their task force recommendations are not enough to protect the public. In fact, that kind of misplaced compassion can contribute to the death of innocent people like Iryna Zarutska.
Reversing course from his policies as attorney general, Stein signed “Iryna’s Law” on Friday. In a video statement explaining his decision, he said, “We can and we must do more to keep people safe.” The fact that it took a brutal murder and outrage on a national scale for him to see that is tragic and shameful.
Ashley Vaughan is the press and policy director for NC Values Coalition.