Press Releases

ROCK HILL, S.C. — Congressman Ralph Norman (R-SC) issued the following statement after a Mecklenburg County judge refused to revoke the bond of America Diehl, an accused accomplice in the 2020 murder of Mary Collins, who was brutally murdered. Diehl, a violent criminal, is now back on the streets of York County, South Carolina, as she awaits trial.

“Mary’s family has endured unthinkable pain,” said Congressman Norman. “Yet this judge let a violent offender remain free, proof of how liberal, soft-on-crime policies fail victims and endanger communities.”

In 2020, 20-year-old Mary Collins was lured to a Charlotte apartment by people she thought were friends, then stabbed more than 130 times and wrapped in plastic. Her murder shocked the community and prompted widespread calls for justice.

Norman met Collins’ grandmother, Mia Alderman, during a Judiciary Committee field hearing in Charlotte, where she shared her fight for justice reform.

“This isn’t about politics; it’s about protecting people,” Norman continued. “If you’re charged with a brutal murder, you shouldn’t be out on bond. That’s common sense. Democrat-run cities have turned ‘criminal justice reform’ into ‘criminal protection reform.’ It’s time to restore sanity and put victims, not criminals, first.”