A lawyer for a man sent back to prison in South Carolina after a deal reducing his sentence was canceled says, he plans to ask for the agreement to be restored.
Attorney Todd Rutherford said Wednesday that he and his client Jeroid Price did nothing wrong to warrant the state Supreme Court’s emergency order in April that sent Price back to prison.
“Jeroid Price is being treated as someone who did something wrong, when in fact he did nothing wrong,” Rutherford said at a news conference Wednesday after the full order explaining the court’s 3-2 decision was issued.
The court ruled that Solicitor Byron Gipson and now retired Judge Casey Manning didn’t follow the law when they secretly cut 16 years off Price’s 35-year sentence. Among their mistakes was not holding a public hearing or publicly filing documents, the justices said
Price was serving time for the 2002 murder at a Columbia nightclub of former South Carolina Gamecock Football Player Carl Smalls. After his released was rescinded, Price was told to turn himself in and return to prison, he refused and was at large for months, before being captured in New York in July.