Latest South Carolina state government News
Farmers are still reeling months after Hurricane Helene ravaged crops across the South
LYONS, Ga. (AP) — Twisted equipment and snapped tree limbs still litter Chris Hopkins’ Georgia farm more than two months after Hurricane Helene made its deadly march across the South. An irrigation sprinkler system about 300 feet (92 meters) long lay overturned in a field, its...
Supreme Court to weigh state moves to cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Wednesday it will consider South Carolina's move to cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood, the latest abortion-related case since the justices overturned Roe v. Wade. The court agreed to take up the state's appeal of a lower-court...
South Carolina death row inmate makes final appeal, says trial lawyer wasn't prepared
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A man convicted of murder who is expected to be the next inmate scheduled for execution in South Carolina is making a final appeal to the state Supreme Court, saying his trial lawyer was inadequately prepared and had too much sympathy for the victim. According...
Kay Patterson, who rose from janitor at segregated South Carolina capitol to state senator, dies
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Former South Carolina Sen. Kay Patterson, who rose from cleaning offices at the segregated Statehouse to serving as a state legislator for over 30 years died Friday. He was 93. The South Carolina Democratic Party announced Patterson's death saying he “left...
Number of women who are state lawmakers inches up to a record high
Women will for the first time make up a majority of state legislators in Colorado and New Mexico next year, but at least 13 states saw losses in female representation after the November election, according to a count released Thursday by the Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics. ...
South Carolina does not set a date for the next execution after requests for a holiday pause
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina's Supreme Court has not set a date for the state's next execution after lawyers for four inmates out of appeals asked them to postpone deaths until after Christmas and New Year's. The justices typically issue notices on Fridays because it gives...
South Carolina to build first monument to an African American. Meet Robert Smalls
BEAUFORT, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina is preparing to put up its first individual statue for an African American on its Statehouse lawn, honoring a man who put on Confederate clothes in order to steal a slaveholder's ship and sail his family and a dozen others to freedom during the Civil War. ...
Condemned inmate Richard Moore wants someone other than South Carolina's governor to decide clemency
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina inmate scheduled to be executed in just over three weeks is asking a federal judge to take away the power of granting clemency from the governor who is a former state attorney general and place it with a parole board. The South Carolina...
South Carolina sets Nov. 1 execution as state ramps up use of death chamber
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina's high court on Friday set a date of Nov. 1 to put to death a man who killed a store clerk a quarter-century ago, the second of an expected six executions in about six months as the state ramps up its use of capital punishment after a 13-year pause. ...