Executive Summary
The recent trends in South Carolina drunk driving fatalities are frightening and unacceptable, contributing to the fact that more people died on South Carolina roads in 2021 than in any year ever . Our relative standing to other states of our size are horrific and consistent. Every aspect of how we address drunk driving that is out-of-step with best practices and does not prioritize public safety contributes to the situation, and how first offense DUI arrests are handled in South Carolina is high on that list. The numbers in this report of how rarely people are being convicted after an arrest are not just disappointing, they are deadly. They contribute to a culture of viewing DUI as unimportant or just a “mistake” rather than a crime that jeopardizes ever y innocent person on the road and can affect any of us tragically in an instant. This report is a product of MADD South Carolina’s court monitoring program. MADD SC monitors the outcomes of first offense misdemeanor DUI cases in seven large South Carolina counties: 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 fourth report and shares findings based on cases we have followed since the beginning of 2019 that have come to a final disposition. Our data for Berkeley County showed 35% of 311 cases ended with a guilty conviction for DUI or the equivalent charge of Driving with an Unlawful Alcohol Concentration. Charleston County was 47% of 543 cases. Greenville County was 71% of 605 cases. Horry County was 30% of 513 cases. Lexington County was 42% of 598 cases. Richland County was 17% of 317 cases. Spartanburg County was 65% of 524 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. COVID-related court closures certainly impacted the time period of this report, but we did not see a consistent impact of how the numbers shifted since our last report. MADD’s 2021 Court Monitoring national report shows a combined conviction rate of 63% across 15 states with court monitoring data for that year. Clearly, South Carolina falls behind most of the nation.
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