We're starting to see changes in Wake County courtrooms after a new law went into effect, honoring a woman killed on a Charlotte light rail.
Iryna's Law went into effect on December 1st, 2025. It requires stricter scrutiny of judges and magistrates when considering pre-trial release. It bans one type of cashless bail in North Carolina. And it makes it easier for people who have a history of mental health issues to be involuntarily committed to a mental hospital after an arrest.
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It's come up in recent cases, including a woman charged with murder in Raleigh and a man involved in a five-hour standoff at a Cary apartment.
It is referenced when establishing conditions of pre-trial release.
District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said that is partially because the law now requires judicial officials to state why they have set certain conditions of release.
Sometimes it's because, under the law, their hands are tied.
"Historically, officials had broader discretion based on the case in front of them, based on the individual's criminal history, what they had been charged with, to determine what an appropriate condition of release was. Iryna's law has really narrowed to some extent that discretion, especially at that first appearance stage," Freeman said.
Democratic lawmakers heavily criticized other parts of the law as well, saying it contained no funding for mental health care and does nothing to try stopping violent crime, instead focusing solely on punishments to be doled out after a crime has already been committed.
Freeman said the thing to watch is how this law impacts the jail population in the years to come.
"It takes years to build new detention facilities, and so if we're not careful, you end up in a situation where you've got an overcrowding problem within your detention facility. Are we there today? No. But could we get there very quickly? Yes," she said.