A pair of circuit court judges and the legal head of South Carolina’s tax agency are vying for a seat on the state Court of Appeals. (Jessica Holdman/SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — A pair of circuit court judges — one the daughter of a state representative — and the legal head of South Carolina’s tax agency are vying for a seat on the state Court of Appeals.
Sumter Circuit Court Judge Kristi Curtis, state Department of Revenue Chief Legal Officer Jason Luther and Aiken Circuit Court Judge Courtney Clyburn Pope are candidates for a seat on the state’s second highest court after now Justice Letitia Verdin ascended to the state Supreme Court earlier this year.
Governor signs law adjusting how SC picks its judges but calls for more ‘meaningful’ reform
The three will go before a legislative panel that screens judicial candidates on Nov. 18, 2024. Assuming all three are found to have met the necessary qualifications, they will be forwarded to the General Assembly for election.
South Carolina is one of only two states where the Legislature elects nearly all judges. Virginia is the other.
Curtis, started as a magistrate in Sumter County in 2011 before the Legislature elected her to the circuit court bench in 2018. As a lawyer she worked in business litigation and served as a prosecutor representing the Sumter County Sheriff’s Department in magistrate court, according to her biography on the state court system website. Curtis also clerked for retired Justice Kaye Hearn when she was on the state Appeals Court.
Luther manages the Office of General Counsel within the state Revenue Department, providing legal advice on tax and regulatory policy and representing the agency in court. Before joining the agency in 2017, he was a civil litigant, according to his biography on the agency website.
Retiring SC Chief Justice Don Beatty grew up in the civil rights era, urges judicial diversity
Clyburn Pope has been on the bench since 2019. She started her law career defending workers compensation cases. In 2016, she started as city attorney for the City of Aiken until she was elected to the circuit court. She is also the daughter of state Rep. Bill Clyburn, D-Aiken, who has served in the House since 1995.
The elections will be the first held since a new law changed how the state selects certain judges. It puts in term limits for the panelists who screen judicial candidates, meaning all but three of the current panelists will have to vacate their seats for at least two years. It allows the governor to appoint panelists for the first time.
And it gives the General Assembly more qualified candidates to choose from. The screening panel will nominate as many as six qualified candidates for each seat, meaning in all but one of the current races all candidates could be forwarded for a vote.
SC senators regularly leave judges they control in limbo; 39 are waiting on new terms.
Other contested judicial seats in the state that are up for election include:
A circuit court seat previously held by the wife of former Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin. President Joe Biden nominated Judge DeAndrea Gist Benjamin to the federal Court of Appeals in August 2022. The U.S. Senate confirmed her appointment about a year later. Candidates include a Columbia municipal court judge, a former state assistant attorney general, a deputy solicitor and a pair of U.S. assistant attorneys. Also back in the running is Justin Williams, a member of the state Public Service Commission that regulates utilities, who dropped out of a previous race for the seat against former state Rep. James Smith, a Columbia Democrat who ran for governor against Gov. Henry McMaster in 2018. Legislators broke precedent, rejecting Smith, even though he was the only remaining candidate for the job and choosing instead to restart the application process.
The circuit court seat previously held by Judge Bentley Price of Charleston, who the state’s judicial screening panel pulled from the bench last year, opting not to re-recommend him after lawyers and victim’s families testified he had made questionable rulings. Critics included 1st Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe, who The State reported claimed Price had shown leniency to clients of lawyers who are also state legislators. Candidates include a former deputy solicitor and lawyer for the city of Hanahan, a Moncks Corner municipal judge, a pair of criminal defense lawyers and a real estate lawyer.
The circuit court seat previously held by Judge Dan Hall. Hall had a role in the litany of cases involving the family of Alex Murdaugh, approving a $15 million settlement between the family of Mallory Beach, who was killed in a boating accident involving the late Paul Murdaugh, and the owner of a convenience store that sold alcohol to the underage Murdaugh. The settlement was finalized two years after Paul Murdaugh’s murder. Candidates for Hall’s seat include a public defender and a magistrate.
Two circuit court seat being vacated by a pair of former state legislators — Judge William Keesley, who served a single term in the House before being elected straight to the bench in 1991, and Judge Cordell Maddox, Jr., who served three years in the House. Candidates for Keesley’s seat include two municipal judges, his daughter who serves as a magistrate, and a pair of criminal defense and personal injury lawyers. Candidates for Maddox’s seat include a municipal judge, two deputy solicitors, two public defenders, an assistant county attorney and a pair of criminal and civil lawyers.
There are five contested races for family court seats and one contest for a seat on the Administrative Law Court.
There are three contested master-in-equity races, including for the seat held by Joseph Strickland who sued Richland County’s legislative delegation when several legislators attempted to oust him from his seat. Strickland won the court case but was ultimately booted when his reappointment came up again in January.