Fake: The killer of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was sentenced to death in the United States
Fake posts are circulating on social media claiming that the suspect in the murder of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in the United States has been sentenced to death. These publications are accompanied by a video showing a Black man resembling the accused receiving a verdict, along with comments such as “All of democratic America was whining along with him”. As fact-checkers at StopFake have established, the video has nothing to do with the Zarutska case, and the court proceedings have not even begun yet.
Why is this a fake?
- The video being circulated shows a completely different man – a person convicted of murder in the state of Ohio in 2016, who was sentenced to life imprisonment rather than the death penalty. During the sentencing, he collapsed to the floor, which is what drew attention to the video on social media.
- At the time the fake was being spread, 34-year-old Decarlos Brown, who is suspected of murdering Iryna Zarutska, had only been charged at the state level in North Carolina and faced federal charges brought by the U.S. Department of Justice. The court proceedings have not yet begun, and no verdict – neither a death sentence nor any other punishment – has been issued.
- In North Carolina, the death penalty has not been carried out since 2006, and at the federal level it was last applied in 2021. The process of imposing a death sentence in the United States is lengthy, involves mandatory rights to appeal, and can take years.
At present, Decarlos Brown remains under investigation and has been charged with murder. However, the case is still at the pretrial stage, and no decisions regarding punishment have yet been made.