SC Expungement Law Should be Updated

The expungement process in South Carolina is something lawmakers have been conflicted over for some time. In August 2014, an expungement study committee met in Columbia to discuss streamlining or expanding the current process. The committee, made up of senators and representatives, heard over 20 speakers. Most argued that the current expungement law prohibit people from finding jobs due to minor prior arrests.
At the time, The Post and Courier quoted Sue Berkowitz, director of the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center, as saying, “It makes it really impossible for someone to go back into society…We recognize what a barrier having this record is to getting back into society and being able to get a job.”

However, strong arguments were presented by the opposition as well. Laura Hudson, executive director of the South Carolina Crime Victims’ Council, told the Post and Courier, “more than 70 percent of offenders break the law again…I’m very annoyed that the victims are not being considered; that it’s all about some varmint…I can’t understand why we have all of this breath being wasted on people who have proven they will not follow the law.”

Not much progress has been made over a year later. The committee heard many recommendations this October, not long before the deadline of December 31 arrives. According the the Post and Courier, “Efforts to keep some offenders from being permanently marked with a criminal record were dismissed Monday as too cautious and lacking in innovative ideas. Rep. Todd Rutherford said a task force’s recommendations for changes to the state’s expungement laws “essentially do nothing” and had already been suggested to lawmakers before.”

While both sides have raised valid points, there is one thing everyone seems to agree on. No one feels that a small misdemeanor charge should hinder someones ability to find a job. Republican Sen. Paul Thurmond stated to the Post and Courier, “There are certainly scenarios in which simply because you utilized a previous expungement, all of a sudden you find yourself with a minor misdemeanor charge that you have no ability to address…All options should be on the table to delineate between someone that clearly needs to have it on their record and someone who doesn’t need to have it on their record.”

In April of this year, Charleston made national news when North Charleston Police Officer, Michael Slager, shot and killed Walter Scott, who was unarmed and running from Slager at the time of the shooting. A bystander famously caught the indecent on video using his cell phone camera.

Today, Scott’s family was awarded $6.5 million by city officials. The family didn’t file a lawsuit in the wake of the shooting, instead they entered into negotiations with the City of North Charleston hoping to reach a settlement. According to the Huffington Post, “The North Charleston City Council approved the settlement by a 10-0 vote, and members of Walter Scott’s family were on hand when it was announced…Anthony Scott said the family plans to donate some of the money from the settlement to disaster relief for victims of the recent floods in South Carolina.”

Charlestonians won’t see this story fading from the headlines anytime soon. Slager is still behind bars and facing criminal charges. The Huffington Post states, “Slager was indicted on a murder charge in June and a judge refused to set bond last month, saying his release would “”constitute an unreasonable danger to the community.””

The national attention prompted a great deal of change in the North Charleston Police department. Since the April shooting, body cameras are now being used. According to the Huffington Post, Mayor Keith Summey also said, “the police department will be working with a division of the Department of Justice that helps local communities resolve issues involving race, color, national origin or gender.”

Today’s settlement is the largest our state has seen for this type of case.

Things keep getting more complicated in the case against Dylan Roof as news outlets are now reporting that his friend is facing up to 8 years in prison for failing to report Roof’s plan.

According to the Post and Courier, “A Midlands man has been charged with failing to report Dylann Roof’s alleged scheme to kill Charleston churchgoers, then lying to federal agents after the attack.”

Joseph Meek, Jr. of Lexington, SC was arrested on Thursday. Roof apparently spent time with Meek in the weeks leading up to the shooting in Charleston. According to local and national news outlets, Roof made comments to Meek about his plans to carry out violence in the Holy City.

While Meek claims that he didn’t take Roof’s comments seriously, the indictment states otherwise. According to the Post and Courier, “the indictment, which was signed by U.S. Attorney Bill Nettles, said that Meek had actual knowledge of Roof’s plan to commit federal hate crimes and religion freedom violations.”

Meek will appear in court on Wednesday. He could potentially face 8 years in prison if found guilty on all charges.

This will not be Meek’s first brush with the law. According to the Post and Courier, “At the time of his arrest, Meek was serving 18 months of probation for receiving stolen goods, and he was arrested in May on the same charge…He has misdemeanor convictions for disorderly conduct and using a vehicle without permission. Meek also was arrested in 2012 on a felony burglary charge that was dropped earlier this year.”

The most recent update in the case against alleged Charleston shooter, Dylan Roof is a big one. Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson announced this week that the death penalty will be sought.

According to CNN, Wilson stated at a press conference, “This was the ultimate crime and justice from our state calls for the ultimate punishment.”

Many survivors of the June 17, 2015 shooting, as well as family members of the victims, have been opposed to putting Roof to death. According to CNN, Wilson stated she had taken their opinions into consideration. “All understand my responsibility and have shown great respect, even deference for my decision to seek the death penalty for the killings at Mother Emmanuel church,” she stated.

Nine people were killed when Roof allegedly opened fire at Emanuel African American Methodist Episcopal Church. Roof faces multiple charges, including 33 federal offenses. His state trial will begin July 11, 2016. A date has not been set for his federal trial.

According to CNN, attorney Gerald Malloy, who represents the family of victim Rev. Clementa Pinckney, stated “We are confident that the prosecutors in the state and federal jurisdictions will find justice in this case.”

Now that summer is drawing to a close, The DUI Campaign in South Carolina is taking off. Sober or Slammer, the State’s annual campaign against drunk driving, is now a well known tradition in the Lowcountry.

According to the Post and Courier, “Since Memorial Day, 218 people have died on South Carolina highways. That’s 37 more than during the same period last summer. The 581 people who have died on South Carolina highways so far this year is 105 more than the same period last year.”

The Sober or Slammer campaign will start on Thursday, and run through Labor Day. Drivers can expect The Department of Public Safety to increase Highway Patrol presence.

According to Live 5 News, “enforcement agencies will patrol and enforce driving under the influence (DUI) laws, to prevent alcohol and drug related motor vehicle accidents.”

The campaign is run for good reason. According to scsoberorslammer.com, “Nearly half of all fatal crashes in South Carolina involve an impaired driver. Too many people are still taking risks that lead to their own death or the loss of an innocent life nearly every day right here in our state.”

It’s been just over a month since the deadly shooting at Charleston’s AME Church, and accused shooter, Dylann Roof, will now have a Federal Hearing.

According to counton2.com, “the suspected South Carolina church shooter, now facing dozens of new charges, including hate crimes and obstructing the practice of religion, is due in federal court next week.” During a weekly bible study, 21 year old Roof entered the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and opened fire. Nine people ultimately died, eight on the scene, and one later at a local hospital.

These new charges come as no surprise considering the early information available on Roof. According to counton2.com, “the prosecution, particularly on hate crimes, has been expected since the June 17 shootings…Roof is white and appeared in photos waving Confederate flags and burning or desecrating U.S. flags. Federal authorities have confirmed his use of a personal manuscript in which he decried integration and used racial slurs to refer to blacks.”

The Huffington Post also reported in June that multiple agencies, including the FBI and the Department of Justice, would be launching a hate crime investigation. According to The Huffington Post, Roof was quoted as saying, “I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over our country, and you have to go” during the shooting.

Considering the tragic events that have occurred in Charleston over the past few months, it’s no surprise that our State is now considering removing the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds in Columbia. There must be a two-thirds majority between the House and the Senate in order for the flag to come down. According to recent polls, there is strong support for removing it.The Post and Courier recently ran a poll which shows “the S.C. House is inching toward the majority necessary to the remove the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds. The Senate has already surpassed that support level. A team of reporters has been polling lawmakers since Monday morning. As of 11 a.m. Thursday, 74 House members, or about 60 percent, had indicated their support for taking the flag down, as Gov. Nikki Haley has requested.”This is not the first time the flag’s place has been called in to question. Polls have been taken as recently as 2014 by Winthrop University. However the issue has gained momentum now due to the killing of 9 people at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. According to the Post and Courier, the shooter was “a white supremacist who cloaked himself in the Confederate flag.”The Post and Courier also states, “The flag was placed atop the Statehouse dome in 1962 in what some saw as a show of defiance to integration and the civil rights movement. After mass protests, it was moved to a flagpole next to a Confederate monument along the street in front of the Capitol in 2000 after a compromise was worked out between black lawmakers and the majority Republicans.”This cause is getting National attention as well. Big name retailers such as Walmart and amazon.com have come out this week banning the sale of Confederate flag merchandise. Regarding Amazon’s decision, The Huffington Post stated, “The e-commerce giant said Tuesday that it plans to remove all flags and related merchandise.”

South Carolina is standing by its promise to tackle the domestic violence that plagues our state. Today, Governor Nikki Haley signed new legislation toughening penalties for domestic abusers, and providing more protection for victims. The bill will also ban certain batterers from owning guns.Gov. Haley was quoted as saying the bill “no longer puts the convenience of the abuser first.” According to The Post and Courier, which published the Pulitzer Prize-winning series, “Till Death Do Us Part,” examining our state’s domestic violence problem, “Supporters say the measure represents a key step in fighting an epidemic of violence and killings across the state by spouses and loved ones. South Carolina is consistently among the worst in the nation for men killing women they know.”In our current system, punishment for domestic violence is determined by how many offenses the defendant has. According to counting.com, “The bill punishes abusers based on the severity of the attack, the number of prior offenses and other factors, like whether the victim was strangled, is pregnant or children saw the abuse. The proposal also provides a lifetime gun ban for the worst abusers and has an automatic three- or 10-year ban in other cases.”Attorney General Alan Wilson said, “While the bill is not perfect and is not the last measure of domestic violence reform needed, it is a giant first step in combating domestic violence…I look forward to working with Gov. Haley and members of the General Assembly in the future to take the additional steps necessary to further combat this heinous crime in South Carolina.”Haley’s office held a ceremony to sign the bill this morning, with the Governor surrounded by law makers and other supporters of the effort.

Since The Exonerated is an exciting addition to the Spoleto line up this year, we thought we’d take a look at an exoneration that made headlines in South Carolina recently.

In 1944 an African American teenager named George Stinney Jr. was arrested and charged with the murder of two white girls, ages 11 and 7. Less than two months later, Stinney was executed at the age of 14 after being convicted by an all-white jury. He was the youngest defendant executed in the 20th Century in the United States.

According to latimes.com, “the Stinney case has been cited by civil rights lawyers as one of the South’s most blatant examples of racially biased Jim Crow justice. The all-male jury took just 10 minutes to convict the 14-year-old. That same day, George Stinney was sentenced to die.”

There were many blatant flaws in the investigation and trial, one of which being that Stinney was separated from his parents with no lawyer at such a young age, and was never read his rights. It is believed that he was forced in to a confession.

South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Carmen T. Mullen vacated Stinney’s conviction, stating, “It is highly likely that the defendant was coerced into confessing to the crimes due to the power differential between his position as a 14-year-old black male apprehended and questioned by white, uniformed law enforcement in a small, segregated mill town in South Carolina.”

Mullen also stated that Stinney’s lawyer did “little to nothing” to defend the teenager. No appeal was filed after the Court’s decision, which is shocking considering the 14-year old was electrocuted only 53 days after being convicted.

According to latimes.com, the 2014 hearing “focused on whether George was afforded due process, not whether evidence exists that someone else killed the girls.” It was determined that there were “fundamental, constitutional violation of due process.”

Stinney is survived by three siblings, all of whom have maintained his innocence for over 70 years.

Charlestonians are again gearing up for Piccolo Spoleto, arguably the biggest event of the year in the Lowcountry. Theatrical production The Exonerated, the recipient of The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ 2003 Champion of Justice Award, will return to the line up this year.     The choice is not a surprising one, considering the violent headlines Charleston residents have seen in the past few months. Charleston’s Midtown Productions debuted The Exonerated last fall. The show pulls from actual events, citing interviews, case files and even public records, making it both compelling and relevant to today’s times. The stories paint a bleak portrait of our justice system.     Not only will this show be a highlight of Spoleto, it is also raising funds for an important cause. Midtown will donate 15% of ticket sales to The Innocence Project once they reach their goal of $5,000. The Innocence Project is a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted U.S. citizens.