South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson says he will not launch an investigation into Scarlett Wilson’s office for alleged prosecutorial misconduct.
Bobby Frederick, president of the South Carolina Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, had originally sent a letter to the attorney general on February 21.
The letter accused prosecutors in her office of not sharing evidence with defense lawyers, tampering with witnesses and other questionable acts.
Scarlett Wilson responded to the alleged misconduct with her own letter recently.
“For the record, none of us has a problem with being lectured about the ills of prosecutorial misconduct. None of us has a problem with prosecutors who deserve to be disciplined, being punished,” wrote the solicitor. “I welcome an investigation by the Attorney General.”
Frederick had opened his letter of “prosecutorial misconduct” in defense of Beatty, according to Wilson. Last year, she and a handful of other solicitors requested to have Beatty barred from considering their cases or ruling on grievances against prosecutors, stating that he demonstrated a clear bias against prosecutors in his remarks at a solicitors’ gathering in Myrtle Beach.
In Wilson’s letter, she called Justice Beatty’s comments “unfortunate.”
“I did not go to the media with my concerns about Justice Beatty. In fact, the first newspaper/television calls I received came only after a small group within SCACDL issues a ridiculous press release, despite the fact that they did not hear Justice Beatty’s remarks and apparently did not read the detailed summary of them,” she wrote. “I declined numerous requests for interview and commented only briefly regarding my complaint and the Attorney General’s thoughtful, supportive analysis of our claims. I chose to be professional, not political.”
According to Wilson, the small group within the SCACDL questioning her “reached back nearly a decade and plucked nine cases out of the roughly 150,000 warrants that we handled, about 750 of which were called to trial.” Wilson added that none of the disputed prosecutions were handled by her personally and several others were resolved before she became Solicitor.
“Prosecutors who attempt to ‘win at all costs’ seriously undermine our entire justice system and have no place in the Ninth Solicitor’s Office,” she stated in the letter. “Prosecution is a tough business, and I am not going to cower in fear of offending some misguided criminal defense lawyers.”
Alan Wilson responded seven days later to Frederick’s letter stating that, “in some of the cited examples in your letter, these issues were raised in judicial proceedings and resolved by the various Courts without any finding of prosecutorial misconduct.”
The attorney general went on to state that “only the Office of Disciplinary Counsel within the South Carolina Judicial Department has jurisdiction over any remaining allegations. The Attorney General’s Office is not equipped with the resources to conduct these types of investigations.”
Scarlett Wilson is the first woman to serve as Ninth Circuit Solicitor which includes Charleston and Berkeley counties.
