(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) More than 50 individuals convicted of rape and murder are among the 3,500 inmates set to be released “early” under a 2021 deal led by then-North Carolina Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper, a new report found.
Cooper, who left office in 2025, entered the settlement with the NAACP that greenlit the early release or transition of 3,500 prisoners amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Washington Free Beacon on Friday profiled no fewer than 51 individuals who benefited from the program despite their heinous convictions.
Among the criminals was Tony D. Hartsell, who was released in March 2021 despite being sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder.
Hartsell received the life sentence for the 1995 murder of his 84-year-old neighbor, whose body was mutilated beyond recognition and stabbed 44 times.
Another criminal, Lorenza D. Norwood, was released in April 2021 despite being sentenced to life in prison for the 1994 murder of a man she set on fire.
According to criminal records, she doused the man with gasoline, set him on fire and watched him burn to death. She was originally sentenced to death.
Jervon K. Wilks was sentenced to life in prison for the 1993 sexual abuse of a seven-year-old handicapped girl but was released in 2021.
Louis D. Boyd, released in April 2021, had been convicted of the first-degree rape of his 12-year-old stepdaughter.
Also counted in the settlement’s early-release tally was DeCarlos Brown, who is now facing a state first-degree murder charge in the killing of Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee.
Brown is also facing a federal charge of one count of violence against a railroad carrier and mass transportation system resulting in death. If convicted on the federal charge, he is eligible for the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
