Longtime Judge Kinard of Kershaw County dies

COLUMBIA, SC State Judge J. Ernest Kinard, who served 27 years on the circuit court and was said to have never missed a day on the bench, has died. He was 75.

Over the years, Kinard, of Camden, presided over numerous trials and motions in both civil and criminal court.

“Judge Kinard never lost his cool, he treated everybody with respect,” said longtime Columbia lawyer Dennis Bolt, who estimated he appeared more than 100 times before Kinard over the years. “He had an uncanny ability to cut through turgid rhetoric and get to the heart of the matter.”

Some of Kinard’s cases were high profile.

In 2012, he ruled against the Catawba Indian Nation in its longstanding quest to build a casino on its York County reservation. The Catawbas had brought a lawsuit against the state and top law enforcement officials about the tribe’s gaming rights.

In 2000, in a case that attracted national attention, Kinard ruled against Edward Elmore, a S.C. death row inmate whose conviction for 1982 murder and rape of an elderly Greenwood woman was still on appeal. In the wake of that ruling, Kinard came in for criticism in a 2012 book by Raymond Bonner, a former New York Times investigative reporter, who charged that Kinard in 2000 had not seriously considered the issue of whether Elmore had been unjustly convicted. Elmore was eventually freed in 2012.

Born in Newberry, Kinard attended Clemson University and graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1961. In 1964 he was awarded a law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law.

Kinard’s obituary noted he was a lifelong athlete and had played both offense and defense on the Newberry High School football team of 1956 and was voted best blocker. He was also an avid golfer for over 40 years..

After graduating from law school, Kinard practiced law in Camden, handling all kinds of cases. Unlike many state judges, he did serve a stint in the Legislature, whose 170 members elect judges.

Elected judge in 1988, he held court in all 46 counties, and was the first presiding judge of the State Grand Jury.

He retired in 2010 but continued to serve as judge even while he battled the cancer that was to eventually take his life.

A memorial service will be held at 3 pm Friday at First Baptist Church of Camden, 1201 Broad Street.