For years, a growing backlog of cases in South Carolina’s criminal courts has imperiled justice. But a recent state Supreme Court order that took effect this month intends to lay the groundwork for an efficient criminal justice system.
The order offers the first statewide system for managing cases since the S.C. Supreme Court ruled more than a decade ago that the previous system was unconstitutional. Solicitors and public defenders charged with implementing the order in their courts will also benefit from an increase in funding from the Legislature for the upcoming fiscal year.
Effective July 3, the order outlines roles for solicitors, defense attorneys and judges in managing cases in all 46 counties in the 16 judicial circuits throughout the state. It offers a collaborative, multi-pronged approach to chop at the conveyor belt of cases with attention given to both the new and old.
“In an efficient criminal justice system, cases should be disposed of within months instead of years,” the order acknowledges.
The right to a speedy trial, which is enshrined in the Sixth Amendment, is a hallmark of American jurisprudence. Its earliest expression is found in the Magna Carta, a charter of rights signed in 1215 by the King of England.
But in 2023 in South Carolina, defendants may not be afforded that right as their cases crawl through the court system.
Years-old misdemeanor offenses as well as murder cases gather dust on the docket. The longer defendants wait in line for their day in court, the greater the chance they miss a hearing, face re-arrest or languish in jail before trial. Victims and witnesses, likewise, may lose touch with the court system, experience loss of memory or endure emotional distress waiting in limbo for justice.
First Judicial Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe said the order and a corresponding increase in funding the Legislature has provided solicitors and public defenders will improve justice in his circuit composed of Dorchester, Orangeburg and Calhoun counties.
“The efficiency of the criminal docket directly impacts the rate of crime in a county, jail costs, and justice for victims, defendants, and those falsely accused,” he said. “We’re going to see vast improvements to our criminal justice system in South Carolina.”
More than four years after Ann Witherspoon was killed in her home in Mount Pleasant’s Old Village, her brother, Sam Witherspoon, is still waiting for justice. Police arrested a man in 2019 on murder charges in the death of the 60-year-old physical therapist. Police contend he staged the scene of her death to make it to look like a suicide.
With every year the case sits pending, her family worries the courts will care less and less about their loved one’s death.
“It’s worrisome,” said Ann’s sister-in-law, Teddy Witherspoon. “The heat of the moment is gone.”
The man charged in her killing, Norman Browne, wants a jury trial, and is 49th in line, according to Charleston County’s General Sessions docket. Browne is free on a combined $250,000 bond.
As his case trickles through the court system, delayed justice has caused numerous hardships for the Witherspoons.
The victim’s father died in hospice without closure two years after her death.
“It preyed on his brain the whole time until his passing,” said Teddy Witherspoon. “He’d always ask, ‘Well, anything about Ann? Anything about her murder?’”
For Ann’s older brother, participating in the court process is a way he can do right by his sister.
“I represent Ann,” he said. “This is a big deal to us.”
Browne is one of 161 defendants charged with murder in Charleston County whose case remains open, according to data from the 9th Circuit Solicitor’s Office. According to a May report, the typical case in General Sessions Court lasts 625 days — more than 1½ years — marking a 51 percent increase from 2014 and a 5 percent increase from 2021. More than 14,000 criminal cases are pending in the county.
Charleston County has more serious cases than most counties across the state, according to 9th Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson, and that makes it harder to dispose of cases.
Before the Supreme Court order was passed down, Wilson had already been trying to reduce the backlog through diverting less serious cases and screening new cases on charges that her office routinely dismisses for insufficient evidence. The solicitor said she welcomes the increased role solicitors will play in crafting the docket under the new order.
Under the new system, a solicitor will propose a trial docket 45 days before the court’s term with 70 percent of cases dating back at least 30 months — 2.5 years. Defense attorneys will then have an opportunity to provide feedback on the proposal before the chief administrative judge makes a final decision.
This collaborative effort comes 10 years after the Supreme Court stripped solicitors of their unilateral control over the docket in a case known as State v. Langford.
In the 2012 case, the S.C. Supreme Court found solicitors’ control of the docket was unconstitutional — as officers of the executive branch, solicitors were infringing on the judicial branch’s authority by independently deciding when a defendant would appear in court and which judge he would face.
The court’s decision wrested control of the schedule from solicitors, but no statewide case management system emerged.
The case management system adopted by judges in the 1st Judicial Circuit, Pascoe said, consisted of two-hour status conferences once a week in which the oldest cases were placed on a trial docket. The new order and additional state funding will allow the solicitor’s office to focus not only on disposing old cases but evaluating new cases and concentrating on cases in which defendants are jailed awaiting trial.
Cameron Blazer, the chief public defender for Charleston and Berkeley counties, said the order recognizes that reducing the backlog should be a shared goal among judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys.
“If that unites us and we use that to direct us, we should be able to get some things done,” she said.