House Judiciary Holds Charlotte Violent Crime Hearing

A U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee held a field hearing in Charlotte on Sept. 29 to hear testimony after the Aug. 22 stabbing death of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, a case that prompted federal probes and national outcry. Grieving relatives, including Mia Alderman and Stephen Federico, and victims' advocates described delays in prosecution and said defendants with long arrest histories have been repeatedly released under lenient pretrial policies. Republican lawmakers blamed cashless-bail policies, lenient magistrates and Democratic leadership and are pushing measures such as “Iryna’s Law,” while local police and prosecutors urged keeping violent repeat offenders behind bars. Democrats and local officials said the problem stems from understaffed, underfunded prosecutors and courts — noting the county prosecutor’s office lacks dozens of attorneys — and some Democrats called the hearing political theater. A crime analyst said national and state homicide rates have fallen and that Charlotte’s murders are down roughly 29% year-to-date, a finding Republicans disputed. Outside the federal courthouse, protesters from Indivisible Charlotte and the Poor People’s Campaign condemned the hearing as partisan and urged attention to root causes of violence.