Joseph Cranney, The Post and Courier, Author at 100 Days in Appalachia

Author: Joseph Cranney, The Post and Courier

Accountability

These Judges Can Have Less Training Than Barbers but Still Decide Thousands of Cases Each Year

by Joseph Cranney, The Post and Courier on December 3, 2019 Comments are Disabled

South Carolina’s system for magistrate judges is unlike any state in the country, creating fertile ground for incompetence and corruption. Most aren’t lawyers, but their decisions can have lasting effects on the vulnerable people who come before them. The trial that upended Sasha Darby’s life lasted just 11 minutes. She […]

Criminal Justice

What Happens When Judges Police Themselves in Secret? Not Much

by Joseph Cranney, The Post and Courier on April 29, 2019 Comments are Disabled

Ethics complaints against South Carolina’s circuit judges are buried in an opaque system that shields the accused. This article was produced in partnership with The Post and Courier, which is a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network. Over the past two decades, more than 1,000 ethics complaints have been lodged […]