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As Life Without Parole Cases Rise, Finding Public Defenders Grows Harder  

The Crime Report

Most states have no rules, and someone just out of law school could handle a life-without-parole case in Illinois or Nebraska. South Carolina requires just three years of experience in criminal law; Arkansas specifies that lawyers should have handled at least one homicide trial. Other states have minimal standards.

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Reviving the ‘Power of a Pardon’

The Crime Report

There have been more than 250 new laws passed in that 18-month period alone — amazing state efforts to roll back the malign effects of the 30-year crime war,” the CCRC details. On a more broad spectrum, a pardon may be necessary to enable anyone to run for elected office, or simply secure a professional or business license.

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Chiefs: Dropping Gun Permits Threatens Public Safety—and Officers’ Lives

The Crime Report

Seven people hit with bullets at a South Carolina lounge during an Easter bash. No law enforcement official I’ve spoken with thinks these policies are a good idea. She wrote , “the new law will complicate the tasks of determining who is not permitted to carry a gun and of getting illegally possessed guns off our streets.”

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Acquitted-conduct sentencing returns

SCOTUSBlog

The statute was amended in 1950 to remove burglary from the list, and in 1968 it was amended to add rape and murder, in part because a federal civil rights commission noted the omission of such serious felonies from the list. South Carolina to present evidence of her good behavior in prison. She also notes that in Skipper v.

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Southern Gothic: Alex Murdaugh to Turn Himself in Bizarre Criminal Conspiracy

JonathanTurley

The still unraveling story of Alex Murdaugh, the once powerful South Carolina lawyer, became even more bizarre this week with reports of the arrest of a man, Curtis Edward Smith, 61, accused of shooting him in the head. While Murdaugh allegedly invited his killing, the police did not treat the case as a murder under South Carolina law.

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Andy Warhol’s artwork, Arizona’s capital sentencing, and more on armed career criminals

SCOTUSBlog

South Carolina that in cases where a capital defendant’s future dangerousness is at issue, due process entitles the defendant to inform the jury that he will be ineligible for parole if not sentenced to death. Arizona applied a settled rule of federal law that must be applied to cases pending on collateral review in Arizona.

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South Carolina judge upholds state’s abortion ban, sends challenge to state Supreme Court

JURIST

A South Carolina judge Tuesday declined to overturn the state’s Fetal Heartbeat Law , which bans abortions after six weeks. The judge also granted the state’s request to send the case directly to the South Carolina Supreme Court. The challenge will now head to the state Supreme Court.

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