NORTH CAROLINA, USA — Governor Roy Cooper signed a bill amending the Juvenile Identification Laws on August 25, 2023.
The amended section was renamed "Lyric and Devin's Law" after two teens, Devin Clark and Lyric Woods, were allegedly shot and killed by a Triad 18-year-old in Orange County in Sept. 2022.
This law will go into effect on December 1, 2023.
This amendment comes almost a year after the killings of Clark and Woods. Issiah Ross is accused of killing the teens in an "execution-style murder", according to prosecutors.
It took weeks to find Ross, officials said he fled to Delaware after the shooting.
He was arrested several weeks later. Investigators held off on naming him because he was 17 at the time. WFMY News 2 learned his name about a month later when the case moved to the superior court.
Officials like Jeff Nieman, District Attorney for Orange and Chatham Counties, said part of the reason it took so long to get information out regarding Ross was because, at the time, law enforcement was prohibited from sharing juvenile information.
"What this law is attempting to do, is balance between the responsibility of law enforcement to protect the public, and also keep juvenile records, private as much as possible," Nieman said. "We all remember it was a tense time in this community when there was that gap between when the murders occurred, and when we were able to apprehend the suspect, and this provides law enforcement with the tool to shorten that gap."
The new law allows for the release of juvenile's first and last names, photographs, alleged offenses and a statement of the threat level they impose on themselves or others.
The amendment states the information can be released under these conditions:
- The child is accused of at least one offense that could go to the superior court
- A judge determines that the suspect is a danger to themself or others
- A judge finds "good cause."
If the juvenile is taken into custody before the required disclosure is made to the public, the information will not be released.
If the information is released, it must be removed from all social media and websites controlled by any law enforcement agency once the juvenile is taken into custody
"Because of the law prohibiting disclosure of juvenile information, the suspect’s identifying information could not be released to the public. This likely delayed his identification and subsequent arrest in Delaware," wrote the North Carolina Sheriff's Association in a statement.
"This new law will allow us to show our community that we are doing our jobs to protect them from dangerous individuals. This bill will make it easier to prevent incidents like the one that occurred last year from happening in the future," said Sheriff Darren Campbell of Iredell County.