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Category Archives: Criminal Defense

Senate passes domestic violence bill with gun ban, tougher penalties

By Jeremy Borden, The Post and Courier COLUMBIA — The Senate on Wednesday passed tougher penalties, a state-enforced ban to strip batterers’ gun rights, and more options for prosecutors in the first major step toward overhauling domestic violence laws in at least a decade. The months-long effort was marked by impassioned pleas on behalf of… Read More »

Local stabbing cases may shape ‘stand your ground’ defense

By Andrew Knapp, The Post and Courier If A’Kara Edwards knew what would happen next, she probably wouldn’t have gone outside with a butcher knife. She wouldn’t have confronted her boyfriend as he beat on her car with a hammer during a drunken outburst. She would have called North Charleston police instead. “I wouldn’t be… Read More »

Ex-Cop Sentenced to 5 Years for Shooting Handcuffed Suspect

By Brett Snider, Esq. on November 14, 2014 A former Maryland police officer and Iraq war veteran has been convicted and sentenced to five years in prison for shooting and paralyzing a handcuffed suspect. Johnnie Riley, 44, formerly a sergeant with the District Heights Police Department, was convicted of shooting Kalvin Kyle in the back after Kyle tried… Read More »

South Carolina debating if it should be easier to expunge a brush with the law

By Cynthia Roldan, September 27, 2014 COLUMBIA – South Carolina lawmakers looking to expand the state’s expungement laws are finding themselves on the opposite side of law enforcement officials and crime victims advocates. During a normally quiet time for the Legislature, a subcommittee of both senators and representatives has met here in recent weeks to… Read More »

Stop and frisk, what you should know

By Brooks Davis The recent death of Denzel Curnell, a local man who died as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot, has raised many issues for local law enforcement, chief among them are the legality of a “stop and frisk” and racial profiling. In this particular incident, a young African-American man was stopped by a… Read More »

Bail for Northwoods Mall shooting suspect highlights authorities’ struggle with new law

By Andrew Knapp, The Post and Courier When Timothy Xavier McClendon appeared for a bond hearing a day after his arrest in a shooting outside Northwoods Mall, a new state law should have prohibited a magistrate from setting bail for the 16-year-old. The new bond law If a person commits a violent crime when already out… Read More »

SC Supreme Court: Jury trials are for adults only

By Cynthia Roldan, The Post and Courier COLUMBIA – South Carolina’s Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that juveniles do not have a right to a jury trial. The high court upheld South Carolina’s current code, which calls for children’s cases to be held in a separate court without a jury. Family court is designed that… Read More »

SLED getting $5M tech overhaul

 By SEANNA ADCOX, Associated Press COLUMBIA — The State Law Enforcement Division is spending more than $5 million to overhaul its decades-old technology system and better protect massive amounts of electronic data that’s critical to protecting officers and the public and keeping the judicial branch running. Chief Mark Keel said he knew when he took… Read More »

Judge’s ruling expands scope of ‘stand your ground’

By JOHN MONK COLUMBIA — In a potentially landmark state court ruling, a South Carolina judge — citing the state’s Stand Your Ground Act — has granted immunity from prosecution to a man charged with shooting and killing an unarmed bystander in a Columbia case. “When the defendant fired the shot, he reasonably believed he… Read More »

Stand Your Ground faces test in S.C.

Shannon Scott argues he should not be prosecuted for shooting and killing an unarmed Keenan High School basketball player. In his Stand Your Ground argument in a Richland County courtroom last week, Scott and his attorney, Todd Rutherford, said Scott fired his weapon from his front yard to protect his daughter, who was being chased… Read More »