Overview

• The new law bars cashless bail for specified violent charges and many repeat offenders, curbs magistrates’ discretion, and allows the state chief justice to suspend magistrates.
• It directs the governor’s office to devise a legal route to resume executions for the first time since 2006 and permits alternative methods such as a firing squad or electric chair if lethal injection is unavailable or unconstitutional.
• Death‑row appeals must be reviewed on a defined timetable, with courts required to hear certain cases by the end of 2027 under the legislation.
• Gov. Josh Stein said he signed the bill to improve judicial scrutiny of high‑risk defendants before bail decisions, while criticizing the absence of new funding for mental‑health services.
• Decarlos Brown Jr., accused in Iryna Zarutska’s death, faces state first‑degree murder and a federal count and is undergoing a court‑ordered psychiatric competency evaluation after a prior release on a written promise to appear.