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by WILL FOLKS
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South Carolina first circuit solicitor David Pascoe – one of the leading candidates to become the next attorney general of the Palmetto State – is pushing to expand capital punishment in the aftermath of two high-profile public executions.
Follow the graphic murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska by a career criminal in Charlotte – and the targeted, ideologically motivated assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk in Utah – Pascoe wants to add premeditation to the list of aggravating factors
“We must ask ourselves once again what we can do to improve the consequences for those who seek to ruin our way of life here in South Carolina,” Pascoe wrote in a letter to S.C. House speaker Murrell Smith and State Senate president Thomas Alexander.
According to the S.C. Code of Laws (§ 16-3-20), there are twelve aggravating factors listed under the law – although the first factor encapsulates eleven separate crimes which, if committed alongside murder, would elevate the latter charge to a capital case. Those crimes include criminal sexual conduct, kidnapping, human trafficking, burglary, robbery, larceny, drug trafficking, poisoning, torturing, dismemberment and arson.
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The other aggravating factors deal specifically with the defendant, his or her victims, the crime itself and the motive for committing it.
According to Pascoe, “under South Carolina’s current state of the law, it would be nearly impossible to seek the death penalty for heinous premeditated killings such as the murder of Charlie Kirk.”
“Currently, only one of (the state’s aggravating) factors would arguably apply in the murder of Charlie Kirk, and quite frankly it would be a stretch,” Pascoe wrote in his letter (.pdf), referring to the code section which allows the death penalty to be sought if a killer “knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person in a public place by means of a weapon or device which normally would be hazardous to the lives of more than one person.”
Pascoe’s letter warned “it would be unnecessarily difficult to make this argument in the murder of Charlie Kirk if it occurred in South Carolina.”
“The suspect apparently fired only once, hit his target and did not appear to have any intent to harm others,” Pascoe wrote. “Thus, under current law in South Carolina, it would be unlikely that the death penalty would be a real option.”
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RELATED | THIS IS WHY WE NEED THE DEATH PENALTY
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Pascoe proposes to address this deficiency in the law by adding an aggravating favor for “premeditation or a plan to carry out an act of murder.”
“Where a defendant creates a plan of action and takes numerous concrete steps in furtherance of that plan culminating in the commission of murder, the state should have the ability to pursue the death penalty,” Pascoe wrote in his letter to Smith and Alexander.
We support Pascoe’s proposal – and hope it receives widespread legislative support.
FITSNews has consistently advocated on behalf of the expansion of capital punishment – both as it relates to the frequency with which it is carried out and the methods by which it is implemented. We’ve also editorialized in favor of expanding the statutory scope of capital punishment – making more crimes eligible to receive the death penalty.
Especially horrific crimes involving children…
“Even without strengthening the law, though, there are plenty of applicable scenarios in which capital cases could be brought against violent killers… meaning it’s time for prosecutors to start pushing for the death penalty far more often,” I wrote earlier this year.
Violent crime must be brought to heel by our system – not accommodate, enabled or excused. As we continue to host a conversation on how best to do that in South Carolina, count on FITSNews to advance reforms like the one Pascoe is proposing.
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THE LETTER…
(S.C. First Circuit)
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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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1 comment
“Especially horrific crimes involving children…”
So why does Fizzynews routinely ignore most school shootings?
A podcaster was murdered but on the same day a teen shot up his school and killed himself, injuring 2 students. These kids are going to be psychologically screwed for years but are being ignored by a podcaster’s murder. Insanity.