Case Explained: Hate crime law remains uncertain in SC – Legal Perspective

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WACH) — A hate crime law is something South Carolinians have been asking about for a while now; it’s one of just two states without one, the other being Wyoming.

Lawmakers have not been seeing eye to eye on this issue, and the future of a hate crime law being implemented is still uncertain here in the Palmetto State.

“I’m opposed to it. I don’t think it’s appropriate for the law to treat people differently, and that’s exactly what it does,” Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey said.

Representative Wendell Gilliard of Charleston County, who has been an advocate, added the following:

“48 other states couldn’t be wrong, and it’s not fair for just two states, South Carolina and Wyoming, not to have on, it’s ridiculous,” Gilliard said.

Representative Wendell Gilliard says a bill is currently in the judicial committee, and the House has met with the Chairman of the Committee and the Speaker of the House.

He says the House feels they have the votes for the bill.

Gilliard says they hope to get the bill to the floor before the session ends this year, but if it doesn’t, there’s a plan B.

“That’s to go out to all of the counties and have them continue to create their own hate crime ordinances,” Gilliard said.

He says he still believes the bill will come to the floor.

South Carolina has a history of hate crimes.

This includes 34-year old Johnathan Felkel pleading guilty on Tuesday to a federal hate crime that happened in July 2025 when he intimidated his black neighbor with a gunshot, and the 2015 shooting at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, where nine people were killed by a white supremacist.

“There needs to be these crime laws for people who want to commit acts against certain ethnic groups. They need to be punished as barbarians if they want to commit barbaric acts,” Tyrone Sanders, who lost three family members in the 2015 Charleston shooting, said in an exclusive interview with WACH Fox back in January 2026.

However, Senator Massey argues the state’s current laws provide enough repercussions for offenders.

“If you look at our laws across the board, most of the time South Carolina penalties are more severe than many other places that have hate crime laws, even with the hate crime law attached,” Massey said.

He says a hate crime law is a possibility, especially with the legislature changing every two years, but right now, the support isn’t there.

“Right now, I’ll tell you I have not heard any big push for this from my constituents at all,” Massey said.

When WACH Fox asked Representative Gilliard about that comment, the Charleston County representative emphatically disagreed.

“He’s out of touch with his constituents, he’s out of touch with the people of South Carolina, unfortunately, ok, but we cannot let that hold us up,” Gilliard said.

If the hate crime bill makes it back to the House floor, it will need a majority vote for it to move on to the Senate.

In previous years, the bill has never been taken up for debate in the Senate.