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It’s time for a fact check of North Carolina politics. This week, we’re looking at a claim made by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley about the murder of a woman on Charlotte’s light rail in August. In a post on X, Whatley blamed the killing on actions his Democratic opponent, Roy Cooper, took while Cooper was governor.
Whatley wrote, “Cooper bears direct responsibility for this heinous act and must answer to the public about why he prioritizes criminals over public safety." For more, Paul Specht of WRAL joined WFAE’s Marshall Terry.
Marshall Terry: A quick recap before we dive into the claim. 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska was fatally stabbed while riding the light rail on Aug. 22. Police have arrested Decarlos Brown Jr. in the killing. Brown had previously been arrested 14 times for various crimes, including robbery. His family has said he suffered from schizophrenia. This post on X by Whatley blames actions Cooper took as governor in the murder. What is Whatley referring to?
Paul Specht: A state task force called the Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice. This is something that Gov. Cooper created back in 2020, about a month after George Floyd was murdered in Minnesota. And the task force came up with recommendations basically for how to make the justice system a little more fair for historically marginalized groups. They went on to produce a report later that year that listed just a bunch of recommendations for how to achieve those goals.
Terry: Is there any evidence that this task force or its recommendations had anything to do with Brown being released from jail on bond this year, or his earlier release from prison after serving that robbery sentence?
Specht: Let's start with this year. In January, Brown was arrested for misusing the 911 system. He was at a hospital calling repeatedly, told to stop. He didn't, so he was charged with that. That’s a misdemeanor and so he was released on a promise to appear in court later. His case was continued. Brown's defense attorney asked for a forensic evaluation. It appears from reports that did not happen in time for him to receive that before the day of the stabbing.
His arrest was for something very, very low level, and it's very common for magistrates or judges to release people back onto the streets for misdemeanors like misusing the 911 system.
Now let's go back to earlier years. Brown was released from prison in 2020. Whatley and other Republicans have tried to make a tie between his release and Cooper's task force. So we reached out to the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction and said, ‘Hey, was Brown released early, and is there anything to do with this task force?’ They said, ‘No, Brown served for armed robbery the entirety of his minimum sentence.’ He served six years in prison and was released in September of 2020. That was three months before the task force Cooper created even produced its recommendations.
Terry: How did you rate this claim by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley?
Specht: We rated it false. Remember, he said that Cooper bears direct responsibility. That sort of implies that Cooper played a role in Brown's release from prison. Governors can't really do that unless they commute someone's sentence or pardon them, but he took no such action in Brown's cases.
We asked the Whatley campaign, ‘What do you mean by this? How would the governor have [borne] responsibility or played a role in this?’ They cited the task force we mentioned. But that task force, its recommendations are just that, it's a list of suggested actions that the criminal justice system take. The report itself, most of those were not enacted into law, and we have not found any evidence that the Charlotte or Mecklenburg County judicial system was using those or even cited those in releasing Brown after any of his arrests.
These fact checks are a collaboration between PolitiFact and WRAL and you can hear them Wednesdays on Morning Edition.
