Critics say killer’s quiet release from prison shows SC lawyer-lawmakers’ power over judges

A bipartisan group of state lawmakers, sheriffs and a solicitor on Tuesday zeroed in on one legislator to make a point about why they say South Carolina should change the way it vets and elects its state judges.

The poster child of the group’s attack was state Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, who as an attorney and a legislator is a gatekeeper of who becomes a state judge, a post with an approximate $200,000 annual salary. Rutherford sits on the Judicial Merit Selection Commission and is one of six lawyer-legislators on the 10-member commission who decide who gets to run for judge.

Last week, it was disclosed that Rutherford secretly orchestrated with former Judge Casey Manning and 5th Circuit Solicitor Byron Gipson the quiet release from prison of killer Jeroid Price 16 years before he was scheduled to get out. Price was released from prison in mid-March.

“The in-chambers, secret sealed order obtained by a member of the Judicial Merit Selection Commission that allowed a cold-blooded murderer to be released from prison cannot happen in a true justice system,” 1st Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe said Tuesday at a news conference in the State House lobby, calling for changes to the way state judges are selected in South Carolina.

Price’s early release was “an injustice so blatant that I am confident that our Supreme Court is going to act quickly to correct it,” Pascoe said.

Also appearing Tuesday at the press conference were Lillie and Carl Smalls, of Charleston, retired U.S. Army veterans whose son Carl Jr. was shot to death by Price as he lay on the floor of a Columbia nightclub in 2002. They were informed March 15, several hours before Price’s release, that their son’s killer was being released 16 years early, they said.

Wednesday at noon, the State Supreme Court will hear arguments from Rutherford and Attorney General Alan Wilson’s office on whether Price should have been released. Rutherford will argue the release was lawful, while Wilson has said in a court filing the release was illegal and Price should be arrested and taken back to prison.

In a related matter, Gov. Henry McMaster for the first time stepped into the controversy involving Price’s early release from prison, expressing his alarm about the situation which “threatens public safety,” in a Tuesday letter to Bryan Stirling, director of the S.C. Department of Corrections.

In his letter, McMaster asked whether Price’s release was an “isolated incident, and if not, to identify any other similar early release orders.”

“The early and unsupervised release of this inmate under the circumstances, particularly without SCDC’s awareness or input, was seemingly contrary to law and obviously at odds with common sense,” McMaster wrote.

McMaster, a former prosecutor, U.S. attorney for South Carolina and state attorney general, did not address the lawyer-legislator dispute in his letter. But his new involvement in the matter signals Price’s release has become a more high-profile issue.

Two bills are pending in the Legislature that would allow McMaster and future governors to appoint up to six members of the Judicial Merit Selection Commission — measures that, if approved, would take steps toward removing the conflicts of interest that now exist. (One bill would also prevent lawyer-legislators from being on the screening commission.)

Only a handful of lawmakers are now supporting the legislation, said Pascoe, adding that supporters include Rep. Heather Bauer, D-Richland; Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg and Rep. Joe White, R-Newberry; all of whom were at Tuesday’s press conference along with about eight members of the House Freedom Caucus, a conservative group of legislators.

Lawmakers who aren’t supporting the bills “need to get some courage,” Pascoe said. The bills are currently in the judiciary committees of the House and Senate.

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, one of two sheriffs at Tuesday’s press conference along with Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster, said secretly shaving 16 years off the prison sentence of a killer like Price makes a mockery of the justice system.

Prison “is where he should have stayed,” Lott said.

Holding a sheaf of documents aloft, Carl Smalls, 66, told reporters they concern various appeals by Price over the years in his efforts to get his sentence overturned or reduced.

Although he was told that the appeals represent a convicted criminal’s right to challenge a trial’s outcome, Smalls said the continued efforts by Price to get out of prison “made me look at it as more a criminal assistance system instead of a criminal justice system.”

On March 15, Smalls said, when Price was released from prison, he got a call from a victims’ advocate, who told him there had been an order signed by a judge and it was a “done deal, and we would just have to deal with it,” Smalls said. He added he learned that Price would have no probation, no supervision or restrictions. “It was tough to take.”

On April 17, Smalls said, he got a call from Richland County Deputy Chief Stan Smith, who at Price’s 2003 murder trial had been a lead investigator on the case, saying Smith had just found out about Price’s release. Smalls said he also learned that Pascoe, who as a Richland County assistant prosecutor in 2003 had convicted Price, also did not know about the release.

“This was a secret deal,” Smalls said.

Smalls said that he and his wife have two main goals: To make sure Price is returned to prison, and to help bring changes to the way judges are selected in South Carolina that “will prevent another family from having to endure this miscarriage of justice.”

Pascoe said the Smalls family trusted in the judicial system, but the only thing that trust got them was “a phone call two hours before their son’s killer was released from prison.”