by WILL FOLKS
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South Carolina’s top cop is blasting one of the Palmetto State’s Republican members of congress – and a top contender for the S.C. governor’s mansion in 2026 – accusing him of trying to “play politics” and score “political talking points” following the recent murder of 22-year-old Logan Federico.
Federico’s May 2025 murder – and the impassioned advocacy for judicial reform that has followed from her father, Steve Federico – has put South Carolina’s failed “justice” system back under the microscope. Specifically, it has placed renewed pressure on state lawmakers to fix their notoriously corrupt method of judicial selection.
Congressman Ralph Norman penned a letter to S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) chief Mark Keel on Thursday (October 9, 2025) seeking “clarification” from the agency regarding the “incomplete rap sheet” of career criminal Alexander Devonte Dickey – who stands accused of murdering Logan Federico in an apartment just blocks away from the University of South Carolina in downtown Columbia in the early morning hours of May 3, 2025.
Prior to Federico’s murder, Dickey’s record of violent crime stretched back for more than a decade and included nearly 40 arrests, at least 25 felony charges, and a series of convictions — yet, as Steve Federico noted, he spent only 600 days behind bars during that ten-year span. As FITSNews previously reported, many of his charges were mislabeled, pled down, or never properly entered into the state’s fingerprint-based “Citizens Access to Criminal Histories,” or “CATCH” report system.
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Norman’s letter presumed the problem with Dickey’s CATCH report lied with SLED – prompting him to ask Keel what “policy changes” his agency had implemented to “prevent similar tragic errors in the future.”
“It is imperative that our criminal justice system reject soft on crime policies that prioritize violent criminals over victims, but this is only possible if criminal records are accurately maintained,” Norman wrote. “This tragedy was preventable, but the system failed Logan Federico.”
That’s true… but where does the onus for that failure lie?
“South Carolinians expect their law enforcement agencies to operate with accuracy, vigilance, and urgency — not excuses,” Norman continued in his letter. “Citizens deserve to know that when law enforcement officers arrest criminals, the system will not turn around and erase, misfile, or ignore the record. South Carolina cannot afford a criminal justice bureaucracy that allows violent offenders to slip through the cracks.”
Keel’s response to Norman – issued late Friday (October 10, 2025) – pulled no punches in addressing the congressman’s apparent insinuations regarding SLED’s culpability in connection with Federico’s murder.
After noting his agency shared Norman’s concerns regarding “the accuracy of Dickey’s criminal history as well as many criminal histories in South Carolina” – and expressing his admiration for “the courage of (Federico’s) father” – Keel blistered the veteran politician for misplacing blame.
“What I will not do is stand by while politicians play politics where a young, innocent girl was tragically killed,” Keel wrote. “I will not allow the integrity of SLED and our hardworking employees to be unduly tarnished in exchange for political talking points. Alexander Dickey, a career criminal, consistently received little punishment for his long list of felonies in Lexington County. His incomplete criminal history at the time Logan Federico was tragically murdered is a direct result of a systemic problem that still exists today.”
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RELATED | PROSECUTORS, CRIME VICTIMS PUSH FOR JUDICIAL REFORM
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The “systemic problem” to which Keel is referring is the perpetual failure of local agencies to re-book – and re-fingerprint – accused offenders when they are charged with additional crimes while incarcerated.
“When that doesn’t happen, those offenses simply vanish from the public record — and from the view of prosecutors and judges,” our Jenn Wood reported earlier this year.
According to Keel, “for criminal charges to attach to a criminal history when a subject is served with additional charges while already incarcerated, the subject MUST be reprinted on the new charges and the fingerprints sent to SLED.”
“This is absolutely known by every detention center and prison,” Keel continued, citing S.C. Code of Laws § 23-3-120, which holds that anyone subjected to a “lawful custodial arrest for a state offense must be fingerprinted at the time the person is booked and processed into a jail or detention facility or other location when the taking of fingerprints is required.”
Keel also noted his agency had provided specific training to more than 15,700 sworn law enforcement officers across the state on the “vital importance” of this requirement in August of 2024 – nine months before Logan Federico’s murder.
In Dickey’s case, he was charged with grand larceny following an August 13, 2014 arrest in Lexington County for failure to stop for blue lights. Dickey was fingerprinted on this charge and a record of it – dated August 14, 2014 – appeared on his criminal history at SLED. While incarcerated at the Lexington County detention center, Dickey was subsequently charged on August 18, 2024 with four additional counts of burglary and larceny. Two months later – on October 7, 2025 – three additional burglary and larceny charges were filed against Dickey while he remained incarcerated.
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Unfortunately, none of these seven new charges were ever entered into Dickey’s criminal history – and SLED was never provided with fingerprints in connection with any of these warrants. Why not? Because Dickey either wasn’t fingerprinted in connection with the new charges – or the fingerprints were never sent to SLED.
That failure proved decisive. Without a repeat offender designation, Dickey avoided prison time and was placed on probation.
“They didn’t have it together until after my daughter was dead,” Steve Federico told FITSNews back in July.
This same loophole is keeping potentially hundreds of violent criminals on the street in South Carolina… even though there’s a law mandating compliance with
“There are many areas a court may consider but they can only do so if local officials perform their statutory responsibilities and ensure the information is obtained and transmitted for use by law enforcement, prosecutors, and judges throughout the process,” Keel wrote in his letter to Norman.
We reached out to Norman to get his thoughts on Keel’s response to his letter.
“The system failed the Federico family — plain and simple,” Norman wrote on X. “SLED admits key fingerprints were never sent in, meaning a dangerous criminal’s record wasn’t complete. This isn’t political. It’s life and death. I’m demanding answers, accountability, and real reforms so this never happens again.”
FITSNews has covered the Federico case from the very beginning and will continue to keep our audience apprised of new developments related to it – including Steve Federico’s ongoing advocacy on behalf of long-overdue judicial selection reform.
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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. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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9 comments
This is horribly embarrassing. A system that just doesnt count untold heinous crimes and the head cop’s answer is “we knew this was gonna be an issue and trained some folks and now its an issue and um….cops and courts are hard, says the guy in charge for like 30 years… not charging the criminals that are already in your posession… there is really no acceptable excuse here
If Keel is telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth regarding this POS’s criminal history, and who failed to correctly document his many transgressions, Lexington County Sheriff’s Department and LCPD got some “splaining to do”. Koon (LCSD) and Green (LPD) are both well established in their positions and Keel is apparently throwing them both under the bus and then backing that bitch up over them. I hope the truth gets out and their peers get the message that half-assing their responsibilities won’t cut it.
As far as Dickey is concerned, we frequently hear pundits saying that the death penalty is not a deterrent. Dickey is obviously a career criminal, if the POS is dead, he can’t reoffend.
Wasn’t Lexington County also responsible in some way for Dylann Roof’s arrest at Columbiana Centre not getting to SLED or the FBI, making it possible for him to purchase the gun he used in the Charleston Church massacre?
This is absolutely true about criminal records but it does miss one point, which is that the prosecutors don’t need the rap sheets to know that there are other charges in the system.
The State CMS has all listed warrants for every charge (that has not been expunged) available even for public view. Prosecutors have case management systems that show every time an individual enters the system or a case is created.
Once again it gets down to why a case was pled down or why it was not tried to a judge (which would mean sentencing is open upon conviction).
This is absolutely true about criminal records but it does miss one point, which is that the prosecutors don’t need the rap sheets to know that there are other charges in the system.
The State CMS has all listed warrants for every charge (that has not been expunged) available even for public view. Prosecutors have case management systems that show every time an individual enters the system or a case is created.
Once again it gets down to why a case was pled down or why it was not tried to a judge (which would mean sentencing is open upon conviction).
Doesn’t matter what they have in their possession , if it’s not on the criminal history it can’t be considered. Easy fix is to give the law some teeth. There is no punishment for failing to adhere to it. Make the failure to properly document and report an offense a hefty fine and if it continues make it a criminal offense. Start fining departments and putting a few lax officers in jail and it will self correct
Yet again S.C. shows the country how corrupt and backasswards we are. Cops not doing the job correctly and then the Judges bowing to defense attorneys. Heck, look how many LEOs are arrested constantly for thinking they are above the law. Prayers for Mr Federico and his family.
Why not a large picture of Logan instead of the piece of crap that killed her?
Change the law now!
Judges who let criminals of the hook who then go and commit additional crimes need to be charged as accessories to those crimes, hauled off to jail and be incarcerated alongside the criminal. Maybe then the victims will finally get some protection.
Death penalty trial and hate crime charges for this guy!!!! Where are the hate crime proponents when it is a white girl killed by a black guy…………………….totally silent. If the races were reversed there would be riots and marching in the streets nationally…..