Where is indigent defense in the Horry County magistrate's court?
In the past, no-one charged with a lower-court misdemeanor in South Carolina was entitled to representation, and if defendants could not afford to hire an attorney they were on their own, which typically meant either a guilty plea or guilty verdict regardless of the merits of their case. There was no prosecutor in the magistrate courts either, which meant that officers were required to prosecute their own cases.
In recent years, solicitor's offices have received funding to assign prosecutors to the magistrate courts specifically to prosecute DUI's and CDV's. Now there are trained prosecutors acting against pro-se defendants who have no training in the law. From what I understand, some counties have assigned public defenders to the magistrate courts to defend DUI and CDV cases, but not in Horry County as of yet. There is something inherently wrong with a system where we are providing trained attorneys to prosecute citizens who have no access to a defense.
There are local attorneys who pick up some of the slack by taking lower court cases at low fees. Often this consists of paying the attorney for a guilty plea, which the defendant could have done without an attorney. But there are many people who are charged who cannot afford even 500$ for a lawyer, and some of those have valid defenses and yet are not afforded counsel. In the city courtrooms, there have always been prosecutors and no opportunity for indigent defense.
If the state (or a city) is going to prosecute a person, they have an obligation to provide a defense to that person as well, when the person is indigent. More and more money is poured into law enforcement and solicitor's offices, more arrests are made for more crimes, and provision has to be made to ensure that the system is fair and balanced. This should apply to the magistrate and municipal courts as well as to the higher courts.
