SC Supreme Court issues ruling on Jeroid Price case

Courtesy: SLED

Columbia, S.C. (WOLO)– The South Carolina Supreme Court issued a ruling Wednesday on the early release and subsequent re-arrest of convicted murderer Jeroid Price.

In the ruling posted to the court’s website, the justices write, “We issued a common-law writ of certiorari to review a “sealed” order of the circuit court reducing the prison sentence of Jeroid John Price and releasing him from prison after he served only nineteen years of his thirty-five-year sentence on his conviction for murder. We previously issued an order unsealing all documents in the case. We now vacate the order for two reasons: (1) the circuit court did not have the authority to reduce the sentence because the solicitor and the circuit court did not comply with any of the requirements set forth in the applicable statute, and (2) the circuit court did not have the authority to close the proceedings to the public or seal the order. We remand the defendant to the custody of the South Carolina Department of Corrections.”

Price was convicted for the 2002 for the murder of former USC football player Carl Smalls.

Following his early release the Supreme Court ordered he be returned to prison prompting a nation-wide manhunt.

He was arrested in New York in July.