In South Carolina, government officials are furious that an outgoing judge was shanghaied into signing an illegal order in secret. Convicted killer Jeroid Price was set free as a bird a full 16 years early. He was well aware of the mistake, so instantly flew the coop. Attorney General Alan Wilson went on TV to slip him the word through public media that if he’s willing to cooperate and turn himself in, they might be willing to discuss making it official, or, at least, reducing what’s left. The family has a say in that so they can’t make any bold promises. The alternative, making them drag him back, would mean “expect no mercy.”
Questionable secret order
When people see the phrase “secret order” in a headline they instantly think “tinfoil hat conspiracy group.” This time, it refers to a highly engineered and quickly disposed of court ruling made under questionable circumstances, then sealed away from the public.
The story might not have anything to do with the Illuminati but the cabal of progressives lurking in South Carolina is just as evil.
The state’s attorney general paid a visit to Trey Gowdy at his new gig on Fox. The former South Carolina lawmaker is helping spearhead Alan Wilson’s “push to return early-released murder convict Jeroid Price back to prison.”
South Carolina AG challenges Democratic 'secret order' that freed convicted killer Jeroid Price 16-years early https://t.co/vUDcvdCiWl
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 1, 2023
At this point, the AG updates, He had the court “issue a bench warrant for Price’s arrest.” His last day on the job, retired Judge Casey Manning signed the order releasing Price a full 16 years early.
Price had been convicted in 2003 for murdering 22-year-old Carl Smalls Jr. at a nightclub near Columbia. Wilson has learned that “a Democratic legislator and Democratic prosecutor” conspired together to obtain a “secret order” that “resulted in Price being released 16-years early from a 35-year sentence.”
They mostly hid it from the victim’s family who hit the ceiling when they found out Price was free. Police announced a bounty of $5,000 for the right information about the fugitive’s whereabouts.
An illegal agreement
You can’t do that, Wilson insists. “You can’t have a criminal defense attorney, a prosecutor and a judge enter into an agreement to illegally deprive people of their constitutional rights, namely victims.” Another thing you can’t do is “have them enter into an agreement to circumvent the mandated laws that the General Assembly has passed that requires them to follow a process.” They did it anyway and the judge signed the order on his way out the door.
“What you had is,” the AG explains, “a prosecutor, and you had a criminal defense attorney, who coincidentally happens to be in the General Assembly, approach a judge who was on his last day before retiring and enter into an agreement that voided all of those requirements.”
If you look up the definition of “star chamber proceeding” in a dictionary, it has a picture of this back room deal. “No hearing, no motion, and then the order was sealed.” Wilson went straight to the South Carolina Supreme Court.
RCSD OFFERS $5,000 REWARD FOR INFORMATION TO LEADING TO CAPTURE OF FUGITIVE JEROID PRICE
Jeroid Price has been free for 43 days after being released from prison 19 years early. pic.twitter.com/sTyoXw8bjL
— Richland County Sheriff's Dept. (@RCSD) April 27, 2023
His lawsuit argues that “the constitutionally protected rights of victims and legislative procedure were bypassed in Price’s case.” The ruling was also illegal for more practical reasons and the justices “sided with Wilson in a 3-2 decision.”
Around two hours later he had an order of his own in hand. One that vacated the previous judge’s erroneous decision. Gowdy was curious how something so sneaky could happen in the first place. “Well, it was the defense attorney’s petition. The defense attorney petitioned the judge, and then in the facts of the petition – there was a motion. Then, of course, the motion was verbal, oral, was in the judge’s chambers, literally on the last day of the judge being in office.” The rest is history.
Price is now gone “to the wind. We can’t find him, as far as I know.” He’s also “now a wanted man.” Even so, Price “could be entitled to a hearing to discuss the justification for his early-release upon his recapture.” Meanwhile, the “court has yet to release its detailed reasons for vacating the order that led to Price’s release.“
