Executive Summary
MADD South Carolina monitors the outcomes of first offense misdemeanor DUI cases in seven large South Carolina counties. The starting dates in those counties ranged from 2016 to 2019. The counties where we currently monitor are Berkeley, Charleston, Greenville, Horry, Lexington, Richland, and Spartanburg. The program’s goals are to compile relevant statistics regarding the dispositions of DUI cases in the courtrooms, to raise awareness of the level of public concern regarding the dispositions of DUI cases, and to report information on the dispositions of DUI cases in order to make improvements to the DUI enforcement, prosecution and/or adjudication systems. Court Monitoring staff collected specific information on cases from attending court hearings or through case research online. We also have held multiple meetings with informed individuals within the enforcement and prosecution communities to assist with interpretation and context. This is our third state report with the first two being published in 2017 and 2018. Our target counties varied in terms of who handled the prosecution of cases in the courts where we monitored. Horry County has a high percentage of cases prosecuted by the arresting officer. Greenville, Spartanburg, and Lexington Counties more often used attorney prosecutors. Charleston and Berkeley Counties were a mix of attorney prosecuted and likely officer prosecuted depending on the jurisdiction. We determined that Richland County did not fit a category because it seems the balance of officer vs. attorney prosecuted cases has been shifting in the time we have monitored there. Our data for Berkeley County showed 42% of 215 cases ended with a guilty conviction for DUI or the equivalent charge of Driving with an Unlawful Alcohol Concentration. Charleston County was 46% of 414 cases. Greenville County was 47% of 777 cases. Horry County was 29% of 388 cases. Lexington County was 46% of 263 cases. Richland County was 30% of 399 cases. Spartanburg County was 67% of 213 cases. Of the cases that did not end up as guilty of DUI, it varied by county whether the final outcome was most often a plea to a lesser charge like reckless driving (even more common than a DUI conviction in some counties) or whether we classified the case as “dropped, dismissed, or not guilty.” This last category means we could not find an online record of how the case was disposed. In summary, only one of the seven counties had a conviction rate over 50%. MADD’s 2019 Court Monitoring national report shows a combined conviction rate of 59% across 18 states with court monitoring data for that year. The reasons for our state’s unacceptably low conviction rate are many and include an unfairly strict videotaping statute, a system that practically rewards those who violate their agreement to provide a breath or blood sample if asked, too few judges taking the full ownership necessary to treat DUI seriously, too little DUI training for officers and judges, and insufficient resources for prosecution, which leaves many officers in the state having to prosecute their own DUIs.
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