S.C. AG, state cops present legislative wish list

COLUMBIA -- Bills that would clear up South Carolina’s law against human trafficking and levy harsher sentences for some murder crimes are among a 10-point legislative wish list presented Wednesday by the state’s top prosecutor and law enforcement leaders.

“We agree on so much that we need to start working together and speak with one voice,” Attorney General Alan Wilson said during a presentation with State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel and the directors of the state’s sheriffs and prosecutors associations. “This is what law enforcement as a whole wants for South Carolina. This transcends party.”

Among the proposals that Wilson said carry the support of the state’s sheriffs, prosecutors and local police agencies is a bill that would make a prison sentence of life without parole mandatory for murder cases, including cases of kidnapping, armed robbery or where the victim is a child age 11 or under.

There is also a proposal that would clear up the state’s prohibition on human trafficking, a law Wilson said is needed to bring South Carolina in line with other states in how the problem is handled. If the proposal were to become law, trafficking victims could bring civil lawsuits against their perpetrators and also seek restitution for costs of psychological treatment or court costs.

“These are men and women in your community who are victims and are perpetrators of this heinous crime,” Wilson said. “This is a first step in tightening up those laws.”

The bills, some of which already have legislative sponsors, also include a proposal that would ban more than 100 chemicals that have no medicinal use, in an effort to quash the rise of synthetic drugs including “bath salts.”