PITT COUNTY, N.C. (WITN) - Pitt County will no longer implement its planned pretrial release program after a judge ended the initiative before it began. He cited concerns over the deadly stabbing on Charlotte’s light rail system in August.

Judge Jeffrey Foster sent a letter to Pitt County Manager Janis Gallagher explaining that the program would not continue.

The decision came in response to the Charlotte light rail stabbing that killed Iryna Zarutska. Decarlos Brown Jr. is now charged with first-degree murder in her death.

The program was designed to use an individual approach to decide which accused criminals could stay out of jail before their trial. It would have asked a body of community members to determine how the system would operate. That body would include people like deputi

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