NC GOP’s crime bill would end written promises to appear in court after arrests
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- HB 307 would eliminate written promises to appear as a pre-trial release option.
- Judges must consider criminal history and provide written release condition findings.
- Mandatory evaluations would apply to violent offenses or cases with mental health concerns.
Republican state lawmakers are quickly advancing a crime bill this week that would limit pre-trial release conditions for a broad new category of “violent offenses,” and expand when mental health evaluations are conducted.
The Senate is taking up the bill first, passing it out of three committees on Monday after it was rolled out Sunday evening, and planning to bring it to the floor as early as Monday afternoon
GOP lawmakers named House Bill 307 “Iryna’s Law” in honor of Iryna Zarutska, the 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee whose fatal stabbing on Charlotte’s light rail last month received national attention. The bill would make several changes to the state’s criminal laws governing pre-trial release, involuntary commitment proceedings and death penalty appeals.
The man who has been charged in Zarutska’s killing, 34-year-old DeCarlos Brown Jr., had served more than five years in prison for armed robbery when he was charged for the third time in January with the misdemeanor of misusing the 911 system. He was released on a written promise to appear.
HB 307 would eliminate written promises to appear as a condition for pre-trial release altogether. If the bill becomes law, judges and magistrates won’t be able to release anyone charged with any kind of crime on a written promise that they will appear in court.
Written promises to appear are exactly what they sound like. The N.C. Judicial Branch website explains that the written agreement states defendants will come to court on their court dates, and “does not require the payment or promise of money.” It’s usually only a condition for pre-trial release available in cases involving lower-level offenses.
Violating the agreement by failing to appear in court subjects defendants to arrest, and can mean they’ll need to “meet more stringent conditions to be released again.”
The bill also creates a new category of “violent offenses” under state law, grouping together a wide range of existing offenses for the purpose of outlining charges that would only qualify for pre-trial release on a secured bond, or on house arrest with electronic monitoring.
Those offenses would include crimes that state law already requires only a judge to set pre-trial release conditions for, including first- and second-degree murder, rape and other sexual offenses, and assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to kill inflicting serious injury. Also included would be first or second degree kidnapping, human trafficking, first degree burglary, first degree arson, armed robbery, and others.
The bill would also add other offenses to the category, according to a summary prepared by nonpartisan staff, including “sex offenses requiring registration, trafficking fentanyl, death by distribution of certain controlled substances, possession of a firearm by a felon, and any Class A through G felony that includes assault, or the use of physical force against a person as an essential element of the offense.”
One passage in the bill essentially would direct judges and magistrates to presume that keeping someone charged with a violent offense in custody before trial is the appropriate choice, unless they find that a secured bond or house arrest with monitoring is a better option.
The bill also directs judges and magistrates to review and consider a defendant’s criminal history before deciding the conditions of their pretrial release, and requiring written findings of fact that explain how they determined conditions for release in each case.
New procedure for mental health evaluations
The bill also requires judges and magistrates to follow a new protocol in cases involving defendants with suspected mental health issues.
The protocol would apply in two situations:
- If a defendant is charged with a violent offense, as defined in the bill, and has been involuntarily committed in the last three years.
- Or, more broadly, if a defendant is charged with any offense and the judge or magistrate they have been brought before “has reasonable grounds to believe the defendant is a danger to themselves or others.”
In either of these two scenarios, judges and magistrates would be required to order that the defendant be evaluated for possible involuntary commitment.
The bill specifically requires that the arresting officer take the defendant to a hospital emergency room for the initial examination.
The commitment examiner would then be required to submit either a petition for involuntary commitment, or written notice that there are no grounds to do so.
This story was originally published September 22, 2025 at 4:45 PM with the headline "NC GOP’s crime bill would end written promises to appear in court after arrests."
