Parole denied again for a woman serving 15 years in prison for fatally stabbing her abuser

AP Photo/James Pollard

By JAMES POLLARD

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina woman who killed her abuser with a kitchen knife six years ago will continue serving her 15-year prison term after the state parole board denied her early release Wednesday.

Tiffany Jenae Carroll, 36, failed to get the two-thirds vote necessary for parole. Despite a 3-2 decision supporting her bid to rejoin society, efforts again fell short because the bar is higher for certain violent crimes. One member abstained from voting and another was absent.

The outcome brought shock and dismay from advocates who have exhausted seemingly every avenue at their disposal since Carroll’s January 2020 sentencing. A state lawmaker tried to secure a pardon but the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services deemed her ineligible because she is already up for parole. The state board unanimously rejected her first shot at parole last fall, according to The Post and Courier.

Carroll pleaded guilty but mentally ill to voluntary manslaughter for the death of William Jamaal Johnson. The sentencing judge determined that Carroll had been the victim of domestic violence during her relationship with the man she stabbed in the chest during an argument at a Greenwood residence.