Thursday, March 23, 2006

child rape death penalty a national story

As mentioned before, I submitted an amendment to allow for capital punishment to be sought if an offender was twice convicted of raping a child. This amendment has good support and I am optimistic of its passage. We have the opportunity to make SC the safest place in the nation for children.

Also, if this sentencing is challenged in the courts, Attorney General Henry McMaster has promised to defend SC should we pass such legislation.

I have been pleasantly surprised of the recent media exposure. We’ve had interviews with newspapers, local TV stations and radio talk shows. I have 3 appearances scheduled on National TV.
Saturday, March 25 @ 7:00 am – ABC News
Saturday, March 25 @ 10 pm – CNN
Wednesday, March 29 @ 9:00am – Fox News

Bill O’Reilly’s staff has contacted me in the past, but I haven’t been scheduled yet.

There is a scheduled meeting Tuesday morning with invited guests including the USC school of Law, the SC Prosecutors Association, and Att. Gen. McMaster. The purpose of this meeting is to tweak than language of the amendment to better its chances of surviving a constitutional challenge. I applaud Judiciary and Senate Council for their hard work on this issue!