Unshackled But Bound: South Carolinians

By Jessica Scipio

October 12, 2025

9:30 AM

How Systemic Bias, State-Sanctioned Violence, and Corruption Echo's Ancient Oppressions in 2025 Modern Courts

In South Carolina, the judicial system has long operated as a labyrinth designed to ensnare Black individuals, where the promise of equal justice remains a hollow echo of constitutional ideals. Rooted in the state's history of slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and persistent racial disparities, Black defendants encounter biased sentencing, inadequate representation, and a culture of impunity that favors the powerful. According to reports from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and ProPublica, lower courts—known as summary or magistrate courts—routinely convict and jail defendants without advising them of their right to counsel, a violation that disproportionately impacts poor Black communities. These courts, where judges often lack law degrees and police officers double as prosecutors, create a "judicial netherworld" that funnels Black individuals into the criminal pipeline for minor offenses like traffic violations or shoplifting, resulting in criminal records and cycles of poverty. This systemic denial of due process mirrors a broader pattern: Black South Carolinians are incarcerated at rates five times higher than whites, per state data, perpetuating a modern form of subjugation that ensures justice is a privilege reserved for the privileged.

Murders in the Shadows: State-Sponsored Violence Behind Bars

South Carolina's prisons have become killing fields, where the state bears direct responsibility for a surge in inmate murders that claim Black lives with alarming regularity. Since 2017, at least 20 inmates have been murdered by fellow prisoners in state facilities, with the deadliest incident unfolding in 2018 at Lee Correctional Institution, a maximum-security prison in Bishopville. There, seven inmates—six of them Black—were brutally stabbed to death with homemade shanks during a seven-hour riot, while 17 others were hospitalized; the violence stemmed from unchecked gang rivalries and understaffing, conditions the Department of Corrections (SCDC) failed to mitigate despite warnings. In another horror at Kirkland Correctional Institution in 2017, four inmates—again, predominantly Black—were strangled in a 30-minute span in a dorm for the mentally ill, labeled "nuisances" by their killers; the perpetrators, serving life for prior murders, exploited lax oversight. These are not isolated tragedies but symptoms of state neglect: SCDC reports show a fivefold rise in violent deaths from 2009 to 2017, with Black inmates comprising over 60% of victims despite making up half the prison population. The state has faced no meaningful accountability, allowing murders to continue as a grim toll of indifference.

Fraud and Corruption: A Rigged Machinery of Injustice

Corruption permeates South Carolina's courts like rot in an old foundation, with fraud and ethical lapses targeting Black defendants in ways that erode any semblance of fairness. Magistrate judges, appointed through a secretive legislative process dominated by white lawmakers, have been caught taking bribes, stealing funds, and mishandling cases, yet public sanctions remain nonexistent—zero judges punished despite hundreds of complaints since 1997, as exposed by ProPublica. In one scandal, former Sheriff Alex Underwood's wife, a judge, interfered in cases to shield allies, leading to her suspension, while broader probes reveal quid pro quo deals where influential figures sway outcomes for personal gain. Black litigants suffer most: A 2023 judicial election saw a white attorney with no bench experience elevated over a Black judge with 20 years of service, prompting Black lawmakers to walk out in protest, highlighting racial bias in selections. Recent whistleblower suits allege "Insurance Reserve Fraud," where corrupt officials and insurers collude to suppress Black families' wrongful death claims, manipulating deadlines and fabricating orders to deny payouts. This fraud isn't accidental—it's a deliberate mechanism to maintain white dominance, turning courts into tools of exploitation rather than equity.

Echoes of Tyranny: Parallels to Pharaoh's Egypt and the Roman Empire

The oppression embedded in South Carolina's justice system evokes the iron-fisted hierarchies of ancient Pharaoh's Egypt and the Roman Empire, where divine or imperial authority justified the subjugation of "lesser" peoples, much like modern racial inequities cloak themselves in "law and order." In ancient Egypt, Pharaoh embodied Ma'at—cosmic order and justice—but wielded absolute power to enslave Nubians and Asiatics as war captives, resettling them into labor colonies without recourse, a divine mandate that mirrored South Carolina's post-Reconstruction "Redeemers" who dismantled Black voting rights to restore white supremacy. Similarly, Rome's imperial provinces, including conquered Egypt, imposed extortionate taxes and denied citizenship to provincials—often ethnic minorities—leading to revolts crushed by legions, akin to how South Carolina's biased courts today impose draconian sentences on Black defendants while shielding white elites from scrutiny. In both empires, justice was a tool of the ruler: Pharaohs bypassed councils for decrees, Romans favored patricians in trials, and today's South Carolina mirrors this with its legislator-appointed judges who prioritize influence over impartiality. These historical tyrannies normalized minority oppression under the guise of stability, just as contemporary disparities—Black incarceration rates triple the national average—sustain a racial caste system in the Palmetto State.

Pyrrhic Victories: The Cost of Delayed Justice for Black Plaintiffs

When Black South Carolinians do prevail in civil rights battles, the wins come at an exorbitant price—modest sums after decades of litigation that drain lives and resources. In the landmark Briggs v. Elliott (1951), part of Brown v. Board of Education, Black families challenged segregated schools in Clarendon County; victory desegregated education in 1954, but implementation dragged until 1971, a 20-year ordeal with no direct monetary award, though it paved the way for broader reforms. More recently, BMW Manufacturing settled a 2015 EEOC race discrimination suit for $1.6 million in 2018, compensating Black logistics workers denied jobs due to biased background checks after a three-year federal probe; individual payouts averaged under $10,000 after fees. In 2024, Sureste Property Group paid $75,000 to a fired Black manager in a swift EEOC case lasting two years, highlighting how even "quick" resolutions pale against systemic harm. A DOJ suit against South Carolina for isolating mentally ill Black residents in group homes, filed in 2024 after years of investigation, remains stalled under federal review, underscoring the pattern: rare triumphs like these total under $2 million collectively since 2015, often after 5–20 years, leaving survivors to question if justice delayed is justice at all.