(The Center Square) – U.S. Senate candidate Roy Cooper and his administration’s release of prisoners, 51 from death row, will be investigated by a legislative panel.
Respective General Assembly leaders, Sen. Phil Berger and Rep. Destin Hall, said first-term Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s involvement will also be checked. Stein was attorney general leading the state Department of Justice all eight years Cooper was the governor.
Cooper and Stein are Democrats, the former battling Republican Michael Whatley for the seat held by U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis. Berger, the president pro tempore of his chamber, and Hall, speaker in the House of Representatives, are Republicans.
Sen. Buck Newton, R-Wilson, and Rep. Brenden Jones, R-Columbus, will jointly lead the newly formed Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations: Subcommittee on Prisons. A release from Hall said more than 4,200 “criminals” were released early.
The 12-member subcommittee includes four Democrats, none of which were defeated in March primaries.
On Feb. 4, Berger in a bombshell discovery said 51 death row inmates were among the 3,500 released as part of Cooper’s settlement with the NAACP and ACLU in February 2021 when he was governor. No public list was given at the time, and the deal was described by his administration as no violent offenders among those being released.
Cooper had been sued by the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, Disability Rights North Carolina, the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina Legal Foundation, four prisoners and an inmate’s wife.
Before the settlement, the Department of Public Safety had already released 16% of the state’s inmate population, dropping the total incarcerated to 28,680 – or a release of more than 5,400.
It said the plan was to release inmates who have not committed crimes against other people; are pregnant; are scheduled to be released in 2021; and planned to grant early release to those on track for parole.
“Roy Cooper opened the floodgates and then did the bare minimum to inform the public about the criminals being released into their communities,” Berger said. “He made every effort to hide what he did, and Republicans in the General Assembly are going to hold him and Governor Stein accountable for releasing violent, repeat offenders and endangering our citizens.”
Hall said public safety is the most important responsibility of government.
“If Roy Cooper or any other official failed at this most basic responsibility, the people of this state deserve to know about it,” Hall said. “The release of violent, repeat offenders back onto our streets is a serious miscarriage of justice. This committee will investigate exactly how these early release decisions were made, who was responsible, and whether proper safeguards were followed.”
In addition to Newton and Jones, Sens. Lisa Barnes, R-Nash; Woodson Bradley, D-Mecklenburg; Danny Britt Jr., R-Robeson; Warren Daniel, R-Burke; Terence Everitt, D-Wake; and Amy Galey, R-Alamance, are joined by Reps. Amber Baker, D-Forsyth; Celeste Cairnes, R-Carteret; Grant Campbell, R-Cabarrus; Allen Chesser, R-Nash; Lindsey Prather, D-Buncombe; and Mike Schietzelt, R-Wake.
The subcommittee, a release says, is also expected to review “our state’s prison system and justice-related topics, including, but not limited to, staffing, healthcare, facility locations, consolidation, programming, reentry, recidivism, the Justice Reinvestment Act, and community support.”
