Roy Cooper Kept a Secret List and North Carolina Is Just Now Finding Out Who Was On It

Roy Cooper quietly freed thousands of convicted criminals onto North Carolina streets in 2021.

Now the Democrat running for Senate is watching the body count catch up to him.

What investigators just uncovered about who was on Cooper's hidden release list – and what those people did next – is something he cannot explain away.

3,500 Freed Felons and a 48 Percent Reoffense Rate

Cooper's administration settled a COVID-era lawsuit in February 2021 – filed by the ACLU and the NAACP – and agreed to release 3,500 inmates over six months.

At the time, his team promised the releases would focus on non-violent offenders.

That was a lie.

Officials later acknowledged violent criminals were included.

Court records show some released inmates had histories involving assault, kidnapping, sexual offenses, and crimes against children.

The North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission reviewed the results in 2024.

The recidivism rate among Cooper's 3,500 releases: 48 percent.

That's worse than the 44 percent rate for the roughly 13,000 inmates released through normal channels over the same fiscal year.

In other words, Cooper's hand-picked early releases reoffended at a higher rate than prisoners who served their sentences.

A Fox News Digital review of Commission data found that from a sample group of 1,180 prisoners, 566 – 48 percent – were later arrested on charges of new offenses within two years.

Twenty percent of that sample have since been convicted.

Named Killers and the Victims They Left Behind

Tyrell Brace walked out of a North Carolina prison in July 2021 – released months ahead of schedule under Cooper's settlement.

He had a record stretching back years: felony larceny, breaking and entering, assault by strangulation, and assault inflicting serious injury.

In January 2022, Brace was charged with the first-degree murder of Elante Thompson – a young father in Charlotte.

Daron Owens was also released a month early under the same agreement.

In the months that followed, he carried out a drive-by shooting that left a victim with gunshot wounds – and was later convicted in federal court on a firearms charge, drawing a 10-year sentence.

Jimmie Speight – convicted of indecent liberty with a child and failure to register as a sex offender – was released nearly nine months early.

In 2023, Speight was sentenced to more than 32 years in prison for second-degree murder.

Kyshuan Norrell, convicted of manslaughter, was also set free under the agreement.

He now sits in prison serving a life sentence for first-degree murder.

Michael Whatley, Cooper's Republican Senate opponent, posted on X that "Roy Cooper was a complete failure at keeping our communities safe," demanding answers for why Cooper "allow these dangerous criminals back on our streets."

Whatley campaign spokesperson DJ Griffin was more direct, telling Fox News Digital that "Roy Cooper has blood on his hands."

Griffin said Cooper's "dangerous decision to release thousands of convicted felons during COVID has resulted in the deaths of 19 North Carolinians."

"All while Cooper refuses to take any responsibility for his actions," Griffin added.

The List He Never Told You About

Here's what makes this worse.

Cooper's administration never made the release list public.

North Carolinians had no idea which convicted criminals had been quietly returned to their communities – until a legislative committee pried the records loose earlier this year.

North Carolina Senate Leader Phil Berger didn't mince words: "Roy Cooper opened the floodgates and then did the bare minimum to inform the public about the criminals being released into their communities. He made every effort to hide what he did."

House Speaker Destin Hall launched a joint legislative subcommittee to investigate – the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations: Subcommittee on Prisons.

Hall called it exactly what it is: "The release of violent, repeat offenders back onto our streets is a serious miscarriage of justice."

After reviewing the findings, Hall told reporters plainly: "It's not good news for the state."

The NRSC called the mass release "INSANE" and demanded Cooper answer for it.

NRSC national press secretary Bernadette Breslin told Fox News Digital that Cooper "aided and abetted the release of thousands of violent criminals onto North Carolina's streets," adding that "Cooper's soft-on-crime policies are too dangerous for North Carolina families."

Cooper's campaign response? They called the criticism "blatant lies from Republicans."

They said Cooper fought the releases in court – while separately confirming 3,500 inmates walked free under his settlement.

The Senate Race Roy Cooper Doesn't Want to Run On His Record

Cooper is running for the North Carolina Senate seat vacated by retiring Sen. Thom Tillis, banking on name recognition to close the deal.

But the legislative subcommittee investigating his administration holds subpoena power and the authority to seek criminal charges against uncooperative witnesses.

Every new name from that list is another family with questions Roy Cooper won't answer.

He spent years telling North Carolina he kept them safe.

The data says otherwise – and now there's a formal investigation to prove it.

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Sources:

• Peter Pinedo, "Former Dem gov in hot seat for 'complete failure' in 'INSANE' early release of thousands of inmates," Fox News, May 11, 2026.
• "Legislative leaders launch probe into Cooper-era early prisoner releases," Carolina Journal, April 20, 2026.
• "Half the Criminals Released by Former NC Dem Gov. Roy Cooper Reoffended," Breitbart, May 8, 2026.
• "Cooper's COVID settlement list gets probe," North State Journal, April 30, 2026.
• "'Worse than we thought': NC lawmakers investigate release of prisoners during COVID pandemic," WRAL, May 8, 2026.