SC Supreme Court reverses appeals court ruling for new trial in Rock Hill shooting case
The South Carolina Supreme Court has reversed an appeals court order for a new trial of a Rock Hill man.
John Ernest Perry tried to plead guilty in a 2017 trial for shooting at a police officer, but was convicted of attempted murder by a jury before the plea deal was completed. He now is serving a sentence of life in prison.
The supreme court decision issued publicly last week on the South Carolina courts Web site reversed a 2021 decision by the S.C. Court of Appeals that would have granted a new trial for Perry.
Perry’s lawyer told The Herald in a phone interview the supreme court opinion reinstates Perry’s conviction, but the lawyer plans to ask the supreme court to reconsider the decision.
The supreme court opinion
The appeals court said in 2021 that a judge’s jury instruction concerning a recharge to the jury about intent was an error and merited a new trial.
But the supreme court said in its opinion released Wednesday that while it agreed with the appeals court that the judge’s 2017 trial instruction was an error, the error was “harmless” because an eyewitness testified about seeing Perry shoot at the police.
The conclusion of the supreme court opinion states:
“The trial court erred in recharging the jury, ‘when the intent to do an act that violates the law exists, motive becomes immaterial,’ because it, effectively, defines the required mental state of attempted murder as general intent. Trial courts must be more explicit in their charges that specific intent must be proven. However, because the State presented additional testimony of a disinterested eyewitness, we conclude the error was harmless. REVERSED.”
The unanimous supreme court decision was written by S.C. Chief Justice Donald Beatty, and agreed to by the four other justices on the supreme court.
What happens now?
Perry, 53, remains in a South Carolina prison in McCormick, according to S.C. Department of Corrections online records.
He was represented on appeal by Robert Dudek, the S.C. Chief Appellate Defender for the S.C. Commission on Indigent Defense.
Dudek told The Herald he plans to petition the state supreme court for rehearing on the opinion based on points of law.
“We are going to ask the court to respectfully reconsider its decision,” Dudek said.
The S.C. Attorney General’s Office, which argued that Perry’s conviction should stand, declined to comment on the supreme court decision because the matter remains pending.
The 2016 incident
Perry was shot by a Rock Hill police officer in 2016. York County prosecutors from the 16th Circuit Solicitor’s Office said in the 2017 trial that Perry shot at officers while trying to elude arrest near Winthrop University.
York County prosecutors argued in the 2017 trial that Perry had fled on foot after a traffic stop and shot at police as he climbed a fence to escape.
No officers were hurt.
Perry was wounded, and taken in custody days later near Columbia.
Perry told police after his arrest that the gun went off by accident and he did not intentionally fire at police, 2017 court testimony showed. Perry had told authorities he was fleeing because he had outstanding warrants against him, court records show.
Attempt to plead guilty failed
Perry’s case became a national story in 2017 after The Herald reported that shortly before the jury returned a guilty verdict, Perry was in a holding cell at the courthouse where he had agreed to plead guilty and accept a sentence of 12 years in prison, testimony showed.
Perry’s trial lawyer argued a deal had been made and the plea should be accepted. Prosecutors disagreed.
The 2017 trial judge, Paul Burch, ruled the plea deal had not been completed before the jury found Perry guilty. The court had held no hearing on whether to accept the guilty plea when the jury came back with its verdict, Burch ruled.
Burch sentenced Perry to life in prison. Perry has a criminal record for other convictions dating back to the 1990s, court records show.
Race excluded from 2017 trial
Perry is Black. The officer who shot and wounded Perry is white.
The 2017 trial happened after police shootings of Black people by police in Charlotte, Charleston, and Ferguson, Missouri, 2017 trial testimony showed. The 2017 trial judge ruled, and prosecutors and Perry’s lawyer agreed, that neither prosecutors nor the defense could bring up racially charged shootings during the trial.
