Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina’s 1st District has submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the office of South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson. The request seeks detailed data on the handling of child pornography and sexual exploitation cases involving minors across the state since January 1, 2019.
The letter asks for information such as the number of cases filed, dismissed, and resulting in convictions; average case duration; plea agreements; sentencing outcomes; and details about bond releases. The data is requested to be broken down by county and year.
This action follows findings from a 2022 memorandum by First Circuit Solicitor David M. Pascoe, which Congresswoman Mace obtained through an earlier FOIA request. According to that memorandum, more than 92% of 385 child exploitation cases in Dorchester County between 2019 and 2022 were dismissed, with only 7.5% leading to conviction—and none by jury trial.
“These are some of the most heinous crimes imaginable, and it appears Alan Wilson has turned South Carolina into a sanctuary state for p*dophiles,” said Rep. Mace. “Families deserve to know how p*dophile cases are being handled and whether justice is truly being served for our children. If the system is this broken in one county, we need to know how far Alan Wilson’s negligence has infected the rest of the state. The public has a right to know what’s happening across all 46 counties. And we need to know NOW.”
Mace’s FOIA request calls on the Attorney General’s Office to release this data publicly in order to ensure accountability and maintain confidence in how these crimes are prosecuted.
Nancy Mace has represented South Carolina’s 1st district in Congress since replacing Joe Cunningham in 2021 (https://bioguideretro.congress.gov/Home/MemberDetails?memIndex=M001206). Before her time in Congress, she served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 2018 to 2020 (https://mace.house.gov/about). Born at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, she is currently based in Charleston (https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/nancy-mace/). She graduated from The Citadel with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1999.
For press inquiries regarding this matter, contact SC01Press@mail.house.gov.
