Are there topless laws in SC? First, you may be wondering what the heck I’m talking about. What is a “topless law?” If you missed it, there is a worldwide movement to change indecent exposure and other state laws that make it a crime for a woman to expose her breasts. If it is not [..]
The US Supreme Court held in Mitchell v. Wisconsin that police do not need to even try to get a warrant for a DUI blood draw if the suspect is unconscious or if the person was in a car wreck. Although the issue presented to the US Supreme Court was whether Wisconsin’s implied consent laws permit [..]
If you have been convicted of a crime in SC, or the court made a mistake in your sentencing hearing, that’s not necessarily the end of the road. Depending on which court your conviction was in and the potential grounds for relief, you can file a direct appeal to the next higher court, and then [..]
In State v. King, last week the SC Supreme Court reversed convictions for murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime because the trial court allowed the jurors to hear evidence of a previous, unrelated murder accusation. The Court of Appeals had remanded the case for a determination as to [..]
I used to think that challenging invalid search warrants was useless in SC courts – trial judges would find a way to rule in the state’s favor, and appellate courts would find a way to uphold the conviction. I’ve always challenged them anyway, and I’m encouraged by the SC Supreme Court’s decision last month in [..]
They do now. In July of this year, in Doe v. State, the S.C. Supreme Court struck down a portion of South Carolina’s domestic violence (CDV) laws as facially unconstitutional because they violated the Equal Protection Clause. The legislature amended the definition of “household member” in South Carolina’s domestic violence laws in 1994 to exclude [..]
In State v. Briggs, a post-conviction relief (PCR) appeal that was published yesterday, the S.C. Supreme Court reversed a defendant’s convictions for criminal sexual conduct (CSC) with a minor and lewd act on a minor based on his attorney’s failure to object when the state’s forensic interviewer improperly bolstered the credibility of the child witness. [..]
What happens when the prison staff causes an inmate to miss the statute of limitations in a PCR action? The statute of limitations to file a post-conviction relief (PCR) action is: 1) One year from the date of conviction; 2) One year from the date of the appellate court’s decision in the direct appeal; or [..]
Yes, it is. However, it does not protect hate speech that would tend to immediately incite violence, which is often referred to as the “fighting words exception.” Recent events have many people asking the question, “What exactly is protected by the First Amendment,” and it has become clear that many people do not know the [..]
In State v. Young, the South Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed the defendant’s convictions for murder, kidnapping, burglary, and armed robbery. The Court held that a letter written by a co-defendant that also implicated the defendant was a Bruton violation, it should not have been admitted into evidence, and the court’s mistake was not cured [..]
