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Two South Carolina inmates whose sentences were reduced by former circuit court judge Casey Manning in December 2022 are seeing their terms of incarceration coming to an end.
Orders to reduce the sentences of Edward Antonio Walker and Renas Isiom-Shakoor Davis were signed by Manning on December 28, 2022. The veteran judge retired at the end of 2022 after nearly three decades on the bench – a career which was tarnished by his starring role in an egregious miscarriage of justice that made statewide headlines for weeks.
Manning was elected in 1994 as a judge for the Palmetto State’s fifth judicial circuit – which includes Richland and Kershaw counties. Prior to that, he was an agent of the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and a lawyer in his hometown of Dillon, S.C. Manning left the Palmetto State for several years and was a private detective in Los Angeles, California. When he returned in 1989, he joined a law firm in Lexington, S.C.
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The sentence reductions Manning ordered in December 2022 became the subject of significant controversy last spring when convicted killer and gang leader Jeroid Price was illegally and unconstitutionally released from the custody of the S.C. Department of Corrections (SCDC).
Price was convicted in 2003 of murdering University of North Carolina football player Carl Smalls after a gang-related dispute at Club Voodoo in Columbia, S.C. on December 7, 2002. He was sentenced to thirty-five years in prison – and was supposed to serve every single day of that term per the Palmetto State’s mandatory minimums sentencing law, § 16-3-20 (A).
Instead, he was prematurely released by Manning – via a sealed order.
Price is a leader in the Bloods gang – having been described as the “Godfather of the G Shine Bloods” within the state correctional system. At the time of the Club Voodoo shooting, Price was referred to as a “superior” in the criminal organization – leading a chapter referred to as the “GKB,” or “Gangster Killer Bloods.”
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Manning’s illegitimate order – granted at the request of powerful lawyer-legislator Todd Rutherford – was first exposed by this news outlet on April 17, 2023. In the intervening days, this story took the Palmetto State by storm – reviving calls for reform of South Carolina’s badly broken judicial system. In late April, the S.C. supreme court voided Manning’s order by a narrower-than-expected 3-2 margin.
No action has been taken to review the other reductions granted by Manning during his last days on the bench. An SCDC report revealed Manning issued eight orders for sentence reductions out of a total of 27 issued statewide during 2022.
Of the inmates granted leniency by Manning, three have been released from incarceration according to the reductions he prescribed. Four other inmates are set for early release in the months and years to come. One is scheduled to be released in August 2025. Two are scheduled to be released in 2026.
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MANNING’S 2024 SENTENCE REDUCTIONS
Edward Walker’s 20-year sentence for armed robbery and voluntary manslaughter was reduced to 15 years by Manning – and he was released from SCDC custody on March 1, 2024. The 43-year-old Richland County man is currently on community supervision, according to prison records (.pdf).
There was no motion on file requesting the reduction in Walker’s sentence – nor was a reason for it being granted provided.
Renas Isiom-Shakoor Davis originally received a 10-year sentence for possessing a stolen vehicle, failure to stop for a blue light causing bodily harm, and failure to stop for a blue light resulting in death. The sentence of the 24-year-old Lexington County man was reduced to six years (.pdf) – over the objection of prosecutors. His incarceration began on June 7, 2019 and is scheduled to end on April 28, 2024 – which amounts to less than five years served.
As in the Walker case, Manning offered no reason in support of his decision to reduce Davis’ sentence.
While behind bars, Davis has completed his GED and four vocational programs. His disciplinary record (.pdf) includes a contraband smuggling violation two years ago. That violation resulted in sanctions including 45 days of disciplinary detention, the loss of tablet privileges for 90 days, the loss of canteen, telephone and visitation privileges for 135 days and the loss of television privileges for 360 days. He was still under sanctions when Manning ordered his sentence reduction.
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ANOTHER 2024 CASE …
Based on the list of sentence reductions produced by SCDC, there is only one other inmate scheduled for an early release in 2024. Derrick Randolph, a 32-year-old from Lexington County, will still be under sanctions on his scheduled release date. Randolph was convicted of trafficking in marijuana and assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature and subsequently sentenced to 8 years in SCDC. His sentence began February 13. 2018. A consent order signed by judge Frank Addy on October 19, 2022 reduced his sentence to 7 years. However, his actual time served is going to be little more than six years when it ends on April 13, 2024.
On July 7, 2023, Randolph was sanctioned for smuggling contraband. According to his prison record (.pdf), his consequences included 30 days of disciplinary detention, 75 days loss of canteen, telephone and visitation privileges for 75 days, and the loss of television privileges for 360 days.
As with the other recipients of reduced sentences that will terminate in 2024, no reason was given for Randolph’s reduction. However, it was accomplished by means of a consent order (.pdf) signed by both the state and the defense.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Callie Lyons is a journalist, researcher, and author whose investigative work can be found in media outlets, publications, and documentaries all over the world – most recently in the Parisian newspaper Le Monde and a German documentary for ProSieben. Lyons also appears in Citizen Sleuth – a 2023 documentary exploring the genre of true crime.
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