Family members of crime victims offered chilling testimonies to Congress on Monday, describing the holes in the justice system that were evident after the murder of their loved ones.
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight hearing in Charlotte followed the murder of Iryna Zarutska in August while sitting on a commuter train. Lawmakers heard testimony about policy failures regarding repeat offenders and lenient pretrial bail, and listened to victims of violent crime and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Justin Campbell.
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Mia Alderman shared the story of her granddaughter, Mary Santina Collins, who was murdered in 2020. Steve Federico talked of his daughter, Logan Federico, being executed as she called out for help and “begged for her life.” Campbell shared a story of his fellow officers being murdered in an ambush in April 2024 and needing his foot amputated because of the shooting injuries.
“Justice delayed is justice denied, and time is stealing our justice with the backlog court system for murder trials, and Mary is not the only victim,” Alderman said after stating two of those who are accused in her granddaughter’s murder case have been let out on bond.
Federico said his daughter’s killer was arrested 39 times, with 25 felonies, saying he should have been in jail for over 140 years for the crimes he committed, spending only over 600 days in 10 years.
“You need to fight for the rest of our children, the rest of the innocence, and stop protecting the people that keep taking them from us,” Federico said. “Please, you have the power, we put you in the power to do what you have to do.”
“Absolutely pathetic that I am here today,” he concluded.
Van Drew and Rep. Deborah Ross (D-NC) led the hearing, which other House members joined. In addition to the families and Campbell, the lawmakers heard testimonies from 828 Bail Bonds Owner and CEO Michael Woody, who spoke on the “danger” of cashless bail. Democrats brought in AH Datalytics co-founder Jeff Asher to testify on statistics showing that violent crimes have faced a sharp decline after they peaked in 2020.
Zarutsky, a 23-year-old from Ukraine, was stabbed on a commuter train in August, leading to an outcry for action from the White House and Congress. Following her death, the North Carolina legislature approved a package that aims to limit bail and ensure more defendants undergo mental health evaluations. The attacker had been arrested more than a dozen times and was let off. The hearing shed light on two other stories where young girls were brutally murdered in testimonies by members of their families.
“She didn’t provoke him, she didn’t hurt him, she didn’t yell at him, she didn’t look at him, she probably didn’t even see him, but she was murdered,” Subcommittee Chairman Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) said of Zarutska.
“We can’t live like this, we don’t want to live like this, and here’s the catch: there is absolutely no reason for us to live like this,” he later added, saying “we must be harder on crime.”
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“What happened to her [Zarutska] is simply unimaginable and unconscionable, and I hope that we will take to heart her family’s request not to remember her by her last moments or politicize her death, but instead to remember her as the vibrant and exceptionally kind person she was,” Ross said in her opening statement.
Ross was joined by Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC) for Democrats in attendance. Van Drew was joined by Reps. Mark Harris (R-NC), Brad Knott (R-NC), Russell Fry (R-SC), Ben Cline (R-VA), Kevin Kiley (R-CA), Laurel Lee (R-FL), Derek Schmidt (R-KA), David Rouzer (R-NC), Chuck Edwards (R-NC), Pat Harrigan (R-NC), Tim Moore (R-NC), and Ralph Norman (R-SC). Hearings on violent crimes have already been held in Philadelphia and New York City.