David Dykes

ddykes@greenvillenews.com

With South Carolina exceeding national crime rates in all but one category, state prosecutors are warning they don't have enough money to keep up with thousands of criminal cases waiting for trial and potential delays are a threat to public safety.

The South Carolina Commission on Prosecution Coordination is requesting an additional $7.7 million from the General Assembly to pay for 104 prosecutors needed throughout the state and to ensure every county has at least one full-time prosecutor.

The additional funding would reduce the average annual caseload per prosecutor from 375 to 280, according to commission projections. With the current backlog, it takes an average of 423 days to get a case to court.

Delays in adjudicating criminal cases threaten public safety since the older a case gets, the harder it is to prove and criminals who are out on bond can harm additional people, commission officials said.

In addition, victims should have the right to a speedy trial along with defendants, the officials said.

Walt Wilkins, 13th Circuit solicitor for Greenville and Pickens counties, said he needs more money "just to be able to maintain and keep up with the current caseload that I have."

"Otherwise, cases are going to slip through the cracks, victims are not going to get the correspondence and the communication they deserve, bad defendants that need to go to jail are not going to go to jail and cases are not going to be as strong when we go to court as they could be because of that."

The 34 prosecutors in Wilkins' Greenville office have 427 cases apiece, according to prosecution commission data. In Pickens, six prosecutors have 631 cases each, according to the data.

"Can you keep this pace up based on the resources that we have, and the answer is no," Wilkins said. "We cannot keep this pace up without more resources."

"My lawyers are having to evaluate cases a lot quicker and not as in depth as they possibly could," he said.

One consequence is that in some cases prosecutors might offer a defendant probation instead of time in jail as part of a deal to plead guilty, Wilkins said.

"They don't have time to chase every rabbit down every hole to try to tie it together to make it tight," he said of his prosecutors.

Two influential state lawmakers in the budget process — Sen. Hugh K. Leatherman Sr., a Florence Republican and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Rep. W. Brian White, an Anderson Republican and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee — couldn't be reached for comment.

Patton Adams, executive director of the South Carolina Office of Indigent Defense, which establishes guidelines for court-appointed attorneys in representing indigent clients, also couldn't be reached.

It isn't known when lawmakers might act on the prosecutors' funding request.

Prosecution commission officials, citing FBI statistics, said South Carolina exceeds national crime rates in all but the robbery category, based on the rate per 100,000 residents.

South Carolina has nearly 559 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents, 44 percent higher than the national average, commission officials said, citing FBI statistics.

The state's aggravated assault rate is 74 percent higher than the national average. The murder/manslaughter rate is 47 percent higher.

An average of 114,442 new General Sessions cases were filed in fiscal years 2013 and 2014, the commission said, referring to the court that handles felony and misdemeanor criminal cases.

The state's violent crime rate has been among the nation's highest for years, said Wilkins, former U.S. attorney for South Carolina.

"We've been trying to combat it, keep a lid on it," he said.

But prosecutors' workloads aren't falling and "we have to do the work," Wilkins said. "We don't have a choice."

"There are three legs to the stool, don't get me wrong," he said. "It's prosecutors, defense attorneys and court time. You've got to have those three things to move a case once it's been investigated and charged."

Government funding for prosecutors' offices began dropping when the recession hit about 2008 and state and local budgets were cut to tighten finances, Wilkins said. Funding levels have been slow to recover, he said.

The state accounts for about 23 percent, or an estimated $13.7 million in 2014-15, of the funding for South Carolina's 16 solicitor's offices, which employ 305 General Sessions prosecutors, according to prosecution commission data.

Counties and municipalities provide about 60 percent of prosecution funding, with the remainder coming from various programs and grants, the commission said.

The additional $7.7 million would get the state closer to a 200 cases-per-attorney target, commission officials said. In addition, all counties would have at least one full-time prosecutor, commission officials said.

The funding proposal also would equalize the caseload between high- and low-poverty counties, the officials said.

There are 16 judicial circuits in South Carolina and each circuit has its own solicitor. The circuits consist of two to five counties. The Office of Solicitor is a constitutional office and each solicitor is elected by the voters within the circuit for four-year terms.

South Carolina's solicitors also administer administrative and diversion programs such as pretrial intervention, alcohol education, traffic education, juvenile arbitration, drug court and the worthless check program.

The commission coordinates all administrative functions of the solicitors offices and affiliate services, including submission of budgets, developing and providing both legal education and training programs.

It also assists solicitors in establishing and maintaining a pretrial intervention program in each judicial circuit.

The American Bar Association told the prosecution commission in a letter last month that it took no position on whether prosecutors' workloads in South Carolina were excessive.

"We caution, however, that, in seeking additional funding for the prosecution function, the state of South Carolina should ensure resource parity between the defense counsel and the prosecution," Thomas Susman, director of the ABA's governmental affairs office, wrote the commission.

"We understand that the commission does not advise the legislature on the defender budget, but we wish to share our view that these issues are closely related and to urge that the state of South Carolina legislature consider each criminal justice stakeholder in determining future budget allocations," Susman wrote.