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by WILL FOLKS
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The leader of South Carolina’s Freedom Caucus is sponsoring legislation which could ultimately lead to the impeachment of a Midlands-area solicitor.
State representative Jordan Pace – who currently serves as chairman of the conservative coalition of lawmakers – has introduced a bill directing the S.C. House judiciary committee to “undertake an immediate inquiry” as to whether or not S.C. fifth circuit solicitor Byron Gipson should be impeached under Section 1, Article XV of the S.C. Constitution.
According to the resolution (H. 4564), Gipson has allegedly engaged in “serious misconduct in office including, but not limited to, dereliction of duty and breach of the public trust by engaging in the disposition of an inmate’s sentence, doing so without properly notifying the crime victim’s family members, having the inmate’s sentence reduced by sixteen years or more in an order kept from public inspection, and mishandling this and other criminal dispositions.”
Section 1, Article XV vests impeachment authority over “officials elected on a statewide basis, state judges, and such other state officers as may be designated by law.”
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Impeachment requires a two-thirds majority as well as a two-thirds vote of the S.C. Senate to convict and remove from office.
Section 3 of the same article provides for the “removal of officers by (the) governor on address of (the) General Assembly.” Under that section, governors are allowed to remove “any executive or judicial officer” based on a two-thirds votes of each house of the General Assembly “for any willful neglect of duty, or other reasonable cause.”
The introduction of impeachment legislation against Gipson not only confirmed our reporting from two months ago – but confirmed the specific nature of the allegations against the veteran prosecutor. Specifically, we noted the resolution would hearken back to his involvement in the unconstitutional release of gang leader Jeroid J. Price from prison in the spring of 2023.
Price had served 19 years of a 35-year “mandatory minimum” prison sentence for the 2003 gang-related nightclub shooting of North Carolina football player Carl Smalls. That’s when retiring S.C. circuit court judge Casey Manning, powerful lawyer-legislator Todd Rutherford and Gipson collaborated to orchestrate his unconstitutional release – in contravention of the state’s mandatory minimum statutes and a constitutional requirement to notify Smalls’ family.
After the state supreme court vacated Manning’s extra-legal, unconstitutional directive, Price was apprehended 78 days later and returned to the custody of the S.C. Department of Corrections (SCDC).
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This shady, backroom deal – exclusively exposed by this media outlet – prompted outrage and revived calls for reform of South Carolina’s badly broken judicial system. More recently, Gipson has faced calls for impeachment from congressman Ralph Norman, congresswoman Nancy Mace and others in connection with the May 2025 murder of 22-year-old Logan Hailey Federico in Columbia, S.C. Federico was brutally murdered just blocks away from the University of South Carolina. The career criminal accused of taking her life – Alexander Devonte Dickey – had a lengthy rap sheet which included nearly 40 arrests (and 25 felony arrests).
“I’m calling for the impeachment of Solicitor Bryon Gipson,” Norman said at the time. “This guy needs to go. The legislature is more than happy to vote in liberal judges, how about they vote out soft-on-crime solicitors for once.”
Gipson has refused to say whether he will seek the death penalty against Dickey – indecision which has drawn a stern rebuke from S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson.
The Jerroid Price and Logan Federico cases are nothing short of travesties of justice… case studies which expose a badly broken system in which corruption and incompetence rule the day.
FITSNews has spent nearly a decade blasting this failed system – one which has enabled institutional corruption, shredded the rights of victims, empowered violent criminals and materially eroded public safety. It has also turned the judiciary into little more than a political annex of the legislature (a problem state lawmakers have refused to address).
We’ve done more than just criticize this system, too… we’ve proposed specific reforms.
Count on our media outlet to track the latest developments in the broader judicial reform debate, the Federico case and the legislative effort to oust Gipson…
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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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23 comments
Nothing out of the ordinary. SC has a long history of corrupt circuit court judges.
Judges do get their panties in a wad when the SC Supreme CT overturns their rulings. Luke Brown was one of them Accused on record the then supremes of not knowing the law, that he himself did. No joke!
what about Todd Rutherford’s role in the Jeroid Price case? He is a lawyer as well as a legislator, he knew what was being done was not right. So he walks away without any reprimand?
Exactly. Todd Rutherford is a disgrace to SC. The whole good ole boy system is a sham
Former Federal prosecutor Bart Daniels saw how bad SC was in his days during Operation Lost Trust. Good man. When we talked was salient he had a brilliant mind and was honest to a fault.
Nothing, sad to say, has effectuated much change in the court system. Little to no purge of bad judges and attorneys. The number of criminal prosecutions should be high, yet are terribly low. Something for the bad apples in public offices. and even staff members The system is severely tainted. Thousands of others like yourself know this. All lawmakers and attorneys normally have dirt on others they know and may work with. And Judges are included. Former SC Senator Hugh Leatherman even would have been so easy to take down, however, his cronies protected him in all sorts of ways. He served untill his death. Will often wrote about him.
SLED is still like it was during the dishonest pretentious days when Robert Stewart was chief. Agents were accused of illegal operations under rubber stamped court approvals.. Most of it was accused of revolving around secret politically motivated reasons.
Being outspoken as you are is a good thing. Others need to know the ugly truth. As a federal prosecutor once told me when it came to people in government, that “you have to force them to obey the law.” The FBI was fully prepared to arrest not only a couple of SC lawyers, but also a then sitting SC State judge if the lawyers acted on their written intentions to prosecute a person for doing what the Constitution and Laws of the United States fully affords anyone to exercise. Those SC lawyers ended up being branded as pathological liars, and quickly humiliated over their illegal behavior. To this day, under SC law they can still be subjected to criminal complaints and even face years in state prison. SC has no statutes of limitations for their felony conduct.
Always be the courageous lion that you are, Rebecca. You are not walking alone. Others who are cautious are everywhere.
LOL outrage at this, but Will and others are silent on the thousands of criminals Trump has set free since January.
For real.
Get Help!
Unless he broke a law, like by encouraging people to riot and attack the statehouse to interfere with the legislature’s duties, isn’t this a matter for the electorate to decide whether they want him to continue to serve or not? Seems like a slippery slope when the legislature decides it knows what’s best for the citizens of Richland County.
Sounds Like Duffie Stone in Beaufort, Jasper, Colleton and Hampton County! He Needs to be Investigated By Sled!!
I’m pretty sure the Supreme Court wants to see this happen, as well it should. If you watch the hearing with Rutherford and AG Wilson before the court, the questions and comments the court makes show that they were very, very disturbed by the course of action underlying these events by Gipson, Rutherford, and Judge Manning.
Start with Gipson, the head south for Stone. Along the way, pick up Rutherford, Manning and Horry County’s Police Department. Once you’re done with them G’Ville is calling…
Greenville just got a new Solicitor. You think she should be impeached as well?
Interesting that FITS takes this position now… despite years of behind the scenes deals between Folks and Gipson, trading info to keep Gipson’s office and employees out of the media.
Prove it.
Gipson lets thugs with no jobs or roots out, yet keeps Mr Chow, a businessman locked away with no bond for shooting an armed thug in training. Arguably, Mr Chow was in a self-defense situation; yet Lott and Gipson pander to their voting base by keeping this old man locked away.
That is the problem you and Will seem to have. You want tough on crime, lock em up, no bonds. Until you don’t. Then you want a prosecutor who thinks about what has happened and acts with consideration. Again, until you don’t.
Not a one of you (Will, commenters, politicians, etc) understands the legal system yet we have to listen to what is wrong with it from people who don’t know anything about it.
And yes, to head off Will’s little crew of devoted and useful idiots, I’m a lawyer. Blah blah blah. Skip the ad hominem bullshit from the ex-cops and weirdos and explain why we should be impeaching a solicitor for this? I bet I will not see a single comment that isn’t a personally attack unrelated to this issue. Because that’s all you got.
And if the idea is this situation with the Price case, I represented the codefendant in that case and Will hasn’t at all accurately represented the facts of that case. Because if he isn’t lying about the judicial system or something else, he isn’t publishing.
When people die at the hands of those who are career felons out on low bonds, sweetheart and backroom deals we know enough. Enter Ms Federico. We know enough to see the corruptness of the system. We know enough to see leaches like your self and Todd Rutherford use the system to your advantage. You people are about 2 things, money and winning. Justice isn’t even part of your vocabulary.
You are an idiot. That’s indisputable. But was unknown. Now it’s not. This bought and paid for blog is helpful in identifying those like yourself. Now come back without the anonymous label. Bet you don’t believe in your silly position enough to do that, right?
Where am I wrong? Before that case there were others all over SC many during covid when judges released violent offenders for them only to commit more violent crime.
Besides it’s an opinionated blog. You’re the only idiot posting under their real name.
Putting aside the personal argument we are getting into, which specific cases are you talking about?
I don’t remember the names or specifics but I think they were during covid 2021-2022, I think. 1 was in Greenwood county, 1 was in Georgetown county, both violent offenders, both released on low bonds, both committed violent felonies again while out. I think there was another in Richland county around the same time
So…three cases around 4 years ago. Any chance that’s something that could not be predicted? Do you have the numbers on how many people were released and did nothing? Because Will and the rest of you claim it’s a systematic problem. But if we take all his examples, it ends up being a very tiny percentage.