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Senate adopts fentanyl-induced homicide conference report after adding mutual-use defense
Summary
The Senate adopted the free conference report on S.156, a fentanyl-induced homicide bill, after negotiators added language shielding people who jointly use fentanyl with another consenting person from prosecution under the statute. The conferees’ report passed 44-1.
The South Carolina Senate adopted the conference report on S.156, the fentanyl-induced homicide bill, after negotiators agreed to a narrow defense for people who consumed fentanyl jointly with another person.
Senator Hembree (Horry), speaking for the conference committee, said negotiators and the House had agreed to preserve the Senate’s core language while adding a defense so that “2 friends in a college dormitory, both of them are taking fentanyl together. One of them dies, the other one does not. That other person, the surviving person, would not be subject to prosecution under this bill.”
Senator Cash (Anderson) asked whether the defense would protect a surviving user if that person had supplied the drugs; Hembree said prosecutors would be unlikely to pursue a case against a jointly-using partner and that preserving a path to the supplier was a practical consideration because investigators often need the surviving partner’s cooperation.
The Senate adopted the free conference report by a recorded vote of 44-1. Senators said the amended language is limited to fentanyl-induced homicide and does not change criminal liability in cases where a person was unknowingly given drugs or where a supplier’s conduct is clearly prosecutable.
Senator Hembree summarized the compromise: the “Senate bill, the base bill is intact” while the negotiated text “adds a person who knowingly injects, inhales, absorbs, or ingests any amount of fentanyl along with another consenting person, which is the proximate cause of the death of the consenting person, shall not be prosecuted under this section.” The Senate’s approval allows the House and Senate conference report to proceed in the process for final enactment.
Supporters said the carve-out balances the aim of the statute — holding suppliers accountable — against concerns about prosecuting shared users and preserving cooperation with investigators. In floor colloquy, senators emphasized that the defense is narrow, applies only to voluntary joint use, and does not protect unknown exposure or distribution by a supplier.
The conference committee was granted free-conference powers earlier to add the defense language; after the committee confirmed the agreed text, the Senate recorded its 44-1 approval.
