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Subcommittee advances competing bills to broaden gang statutes and add racketeering offenses
Summary
Senators and law enforcement urged the Judiciary Subcommittee to advance two bills that would revise South Carolina’s gang statutes — lowering the numerical threshold for a gang, expanding covered activities, and adding a state racketeering (RICO-like) statute — saying prosecutors lack tools to pursue organized criminal enterprises.
A Senate Judiciary subcommittee voted to advance two related measures that would substantially change how South Carolina criminal law treats organized criminal groups: one would revise the state’s criminal gang statute and the other would create a state racketeering (RICO-like) offense and rename gang offenses as enterprise offenses.
Senator Hembree introduced changes to the Criminal Gang Prevention Act that would add activities to the definition of criminal gang activity and lower the numerical threshold that defines a criminal gang from five to three members. The proposal also would allow solicitors to prosecute an entire gang for related offenses rather than charging only individual members.
A second measure — described in the hearing as the South Carolina Enterprise and Racketeering Suppression Act — would replace the criminal gang offense name with criminal enterprise, revise penalties, and create a standalone felony for unlawful racketeering. The racketeering proposal defines a “pattern of racketeering activity” as two qualifying activities…
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