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Attorney general Alan Wilson – South Carolina’s top prosecutor – sent a letter to Palmetto State solicitors this week urging them to take advantage of bond laws which let them hold illegal aliens charged with committing crimes.
The letter also pleaded with solicitors to leverage the provisions of new and existing statutes to crack down on the “catch and release” of violent criminals – a pattern of injustice that has plagued public safety in the Palmetto State for years.
“We have laws that should prevent the catch and release of repeat criminals and hold illegal immigrants charged with crime,” Wilson wrote to South Carolina’s sixteen solicitors. “It’s up to us to ensure they’re properly enforced.”
Wilson’s letter credited the S.C. General Assembly with passing “serious meaningful bond reform” in 2023 – and challenged solicitors to “ensure that it is implemented properly.”
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Last year’s bond reform law – Act 83 of 2023 – created a new charge for individuals who commit violent crime while out on bond, established an automatic bond revocation process for those who commit violent offenses or firearm offenses while out on bond and upgraded the state’s electronic monitoring standards.
Frankly, these reforms were long-overdue …
Just as there is no excuse for releasing a repeat violent offender on bond, there is no excuse for releasing someone whom it has been determined entered the country illegally.
“South Carolina requires lawful immigration status as a consideration for the court when determining (whether) to deny bond,” Wilson wrote, asking solicitors to “remind your prosecutors about the above provisions and call the courts’ attention to (them) when necessary and applicable.”
(Click to view)
In urging judges to deny bond for illegal aliens, Wilson cited the case of Laken Riley – a 22-year-old Augusta University nursing student from Woodstock, Georgia. Riley was murdered on the campus of the University of Georgia on the morning of Thursday, February 22, 2024. Police have accused 26-year-old Jose Antonio Ibarra – an illegal alien and suspected gang member from Venezuela – of committing the murder.
“Before he murdered Riley, Ibarra was arrested and released several times for allegedly shoplifting in Georgia and felony child endangerment in New York,” Wilson wrote. “He sailed to appear for his Georgia court appearance, and there was a bench warrant for his arrest at the time of (Riley’s) murder.”
“If Ibarra were held and denied bond in Georgia, Laken Riley would still be alive,” Wilson wrote.
Wilson has previously advocated on behalf of federal legislation which would require the detention of any illegal alien accused of a larceny, burglary, theft or shoplifting offense.
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THE LETTER …
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(S.C. Attorney General)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina and before that he was a bass guitarist and dive bar bouncer. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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1 comment
What about the actually innocent forced to live in custody or under horrendous bonds while their rights to speedy trial and/or speedy retrial after a hung jury in a first trial get trampled on? And by none other than Hatchet-for-Hire Heather (“Weiss”) who stands gloating behind Alan Wilson as he urges BASICALLY repeal of the Eighth Amendment which bans excessive bail.
Three stark examples from the 21st Century:
(1) Professor Chi Kei Rick Chow who languished in jail for three years because no judge in the length and breadth of South Carolina had the courage to grant him bail until a half-or-majority-black jury found Professor Chow NOT GUILTY for having, in defense of others, shot a gun-toting 14-year-old who had trespassed with that gun on Professor Chow’s store.
(2) Now-retired SC Circuit Judge Lee who got her nomination to the federal bench withdrawn because of the furor over her having granted bail to a defendant who was later also acquitted by a jury in the bakery shooting cases.
and (3) You guessed it, Dr. Marie Faltas who was made to live in an hotel for 50 months while paying rent for an apartment to which she was forbidden to return, all because Hatchet-for-Hire Heather Weiss had brought against Dr. Faltas pre-known FALSE harassment charges which were, thank God and due to Dr. Faltas’ able pro se advocacy, ultimately dismissed WITH PREJUDICE. Weiss knew, and could not not have known (double negative intended) that Dr. Faltas was the victim, not the perpetrator of harassment. But Weiss was paid $70K/year by the City of Columbia to be its agent in then-Barney Giese’s 5th Circuit’s Solicitor’s Office. And Dr. Faltas was then suing the City of Columbia. So, who pays the piper calls the tune. And the victim got charged instead of the real perpetrator.
You want prosecutors’ tyranny unchecked by the Eighth Amendment?
Be careful! Some day YOU might need that Eighth Amendment.
Who can give Professor Chow his three years back? Who can give Dr. Marie Faltas her 50 months back?
Does anyone even want to?
Because I always propose ennobling solutions, not pounds-of-flesh vengeance, I proposed a “days bank” where the days an ultimately-acquitted criminal defendant served in pre-trial/pre-dismissal custody may be banked and donated to other bail-eligible defendants who cannot afford the monetary bond.
Remember! Perjury and known-false prosecutions are crimes, too, the latter as misconduct in office.