Roy Cooper just cannot stick to one explanation. The Democrat former governor of North Carolina, now running for U.S. Senate, keeps inventing new reasons for why he cut a deal that put more than 4,200 convicted criminals back on the streets.
First it was not his fault. Then it was Trump’s fault. Then it was the prison officials’ fault. The only consistent thread is that Cooper refuses to own the blood that followed.
In 2021, Cooper signed a legally binding settlement with far-left groups including the NAACP and ACLU. The agreement required the early release of at least 3,500 inmates from state prisons under the cover of COVID. Officials later counted more. A searchable database tracking the full list puts the number at 4,234.
Among them were murderers, rapists, child predators, and dozens serving life sentences. Breitbart reports Cooper was the only governor in America who signed such a binding agreement forcing mass releases. Other Democrat governors in Colorado, Illinois, and New Jersey faced similar lawsuits or judicial pressure. Many fought back, delayed, or saw orders blocked. Cooper volunteered.
When the settlement was announced, prison officials told a state legislative committee that only inmates already scheduled for release in 2021 would go free a few months early. That was false. Violent offenders walked. The full list stayed hidden for years. It only surfaced after records tied Decarlos Brown Jr., the man charged with murdering Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail train, to the settlement numbers.
Brown had been released earlier, but officials counted him toward the quota so they could free fewer others. Convenient accounting. Deadly result.
Cooper’s excuses multiplied. When Republicans pointed to Brown and the list, his campaign called it a “lie” and recited his long career as attorney general and governor who supposedly kept criminals locked up. That defense collapsed under the weight of the actual names.
Next came the attempt to blame federal releases under President Trump. When that fell apart, Cooper shifted again. Suddenly the prison officials alone decided who walked free. He just signed the papers.
The numbers are ugly. Nearly half of those released under the deal have reoffended, according to state data and independent reviews. The New York Post found more than 600 serious felonies, including sex offenses and violent crimes. At least 18 of the freed inmates were later charged with murder.
Reports put the death toll at 25 North Carolinians killed by people Cooper’s deal put back into communities. One database tracking the full cohort shows 2,412 have already returned to crime. The list included 53 serving life, 70 convicted of murder, 99 of rape or sexual offense, and more than 200 convicted of taking indecent liberties with a child.
These were not abstract statistics. Tyrell Brace, released in 2021, later killed a young father trying to break up a fight. Lucas Scronce’s release preceded the fentanyl death of his own 16-month-old daughter. Jimmie Speight, a prior sex offender against children, was charged with murder, rape, and kidnapping after walking free. Mothers of the dead have asked the obvious question: why release men already proven dangerous?
Cooper now wants a promotion to the U.S. Senate. He still claims he fought the releases in court and that public safety was his top priority. The record shows he settled rather than risk a broader court order, hid the names, misled lawmakers about the types of offenders involved, and then spent years inventing new stories when the bodies stacked up. Other governors found ways to resist or limit the damage. Cooper signed on the dotted line.
Scripture does not leave room for this kind of failure. Romans 13:4 declares that the ruler “is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.”
Government exists to protect the innocent and punish the wicked. When a governor trades that duty for a settlement with activist groups and then lies about it, the blood of the victims cries out.
North Carolinians are watching a man who unleashed predators and murderers now ask for higher office. The excuses keep changing. The dead stay dead. Cooper’s record is not complicated. He chose the deal. He owned the consequences. Everything else is just another story he hopes voters will buy.
