County grand juries in South Carolina almost always indict

Defense attorneys said it is time for South Carolina to change its grand jury system because the panels often spend little time reviewing cases and almost always agree to indict defendants.

Grand juries in Greenville County have returned indictments on 99.9 percent of the 18,700 charges they have heard since 2011.

It isn’t much different elsewhere in the state. In 2014, Charleston County grand jurors indicted on all but seven of the 6,366 indictments they reviewed and Florence County grand juries heard 1,285 charges and refused to indict on just one, said Patrick McLaughlin, an attorney and past president of the S.C. Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

One easy fix would be passing a law requiring transcripts be kept of county grand jury proceedings like they are with the State Grand Jury, said Patrick McLaughlin, an attorney and past president of the S.C. Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

The differences in how the State Grand Jury handles cases and how county grand juries are operated mean defendants get the opportunity in state matters to challenge indictments by showing there is clear evidence of abuse or irregularity. That chance isn’t given in county matters, McLaughlin said.

The Associated Press