COLUMBIA, S.C. (WSPA) – Governor Henry McMaster and Attorney General Alan Wilson responded following the release of the South Carolina Supreme Court opinion on sending Jeroid Price back to prison.

Price was found guilty in 2003 and sentenced to 35 years in prison by Judge Reginald Lloyd for killing Lowcountry native Carl Smalls during a shooting at a Columbia nightclub a year prior.

But he was released in mid-March, only 19 years into his sentence, after an order was signed by Circuit Court Judge Casey Manning in December 2022.

However, the South Carolina Supreme Court reversed that decision 3-2 and said Price must serve the remainder of his prison sentence. The order came down hours after justices listened to arguments surrounding his early release.

Price was taken into custody on July 12 in New York.

After hearing oral arguments in April. the South Carolina Supreme Court released its opinion on Wednesday.

Attorney General Alan Wilson agreed with the statement and released the following statement:

“We agree with the Court’s majority decision and appreciate it holding the state actors and lower court accountable for not following the law. Now that we have the full opinion, we will continue our review of the early releases from previous years. This was an unusual case, but the Court’s urgency to hear our original request and its ultimate decision proves no one is above the law in South Carolina.”  

Governor Henry McMaster said, when asked Wednesday morning, that he has not read the decision but does look “forward to reading it and seeing exactly what and why the court did.”

McMaster went on to say, “We have a problem. It is clear we have a problem here in South Carolina that needs addressing and that is the revolving doors of these criminals.”

“In this case, Jeroid Price, he was in there for life and got out after 19 years,” Gov. McMaster said. “Now how did that happen? Why did that happen? What can we do to fix that?”