S 0163 General Bill, By Leventis, Hayes, Passailaigue, M.T. Rose and Wilson
 A BILL TO AMEND SECTIONS 14-7-1610, 14-7-1615, AND 14-7-1630, ALL AS AMENDED,
 CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, ALL RELATING TO THE STATE GRAND JURY
 SYSTEM, SO AS TO REVISE JURISDICTION TO INCLUDE ENVIRONMENTAL OFFENSES.

   10/17/94  Senate Prefiled
   10/17/94  Senate Referred to Committee on Judiciary
   01/10/95  Senate Introduced and read first time SJ-58
   01/10/95  Senate Referred to Committee on Judiciary SJ-58
   04/24/96  Senate Committee report: Favorable Judiciary SJ-9
   04/29/96  Senate Read second time SJ-30
   04/29/96  Senate Ordered to third reading with notice of
                     amendments SJ-30
   04/30/96  Senate Read third time and sent to House SJ-12
   04/30/96  Senate Reconsidered SJ-12
   04/30/96  Senate Amended SJ-45
   04/30/96  Senate Read third time and sent to House SJ-45
   05/01/96  House  Introduced and read first time HJ-5
   05/01/96  House  Referred to Committee on Judiciary HJ-5

AS PASSED BY THE SENATE

April 30, 1996

S. 163

Introduced by SENATORS Leventis, Wilson, Rose, Hayes and Passailaigue

S. Printed 4/30/96--S.

Read the first time January 10, 1995.

A BILL

TO AMEND SECTIONS 14-7-1610, 14-7-1615, AND 14-7-1630, ALL AS AMENDED, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, ALL RELATING TO THE STATE GRAND JURY SYSTEM, SO AS TO REVISE JURISDICTION TO INCLUDE ENVIRONMENTAL OFFENSES.

Amend Title To Conform

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. Section 14-7-1610 of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 335 of 1992, is further amended to read:

"Section 14-7-1610. It is the intent of the General Assembly to enhance the grand jury system and to improve the ability of the State to detect and eliminate criminal activity. The General Assembly recognizes the great importance of having the federal authorities available for certain investigations. The General Assembly finds that crimes involving narcotics, dangerous drugs, or controlled substances, as well as crimes involving obscenity, often transpire or have significance in more than one county of this State. When this occurs, these crimes are most effectively detected and investigated by a grand jury system which has the authority to cross county lines.

The General Assembly further finds that there is a need to enhance the grand jury system to improve the ability of the State to detect and eliminate public corruption. Crimes involving public corruption transpire at times in a single county, but often transpire or have significance in more than one county of this State. The General Assembly believes that a state grand jury, possessing considerably broader investigative authority than individual county grand juries, should be available to investigate public corruption offenses in South Carolina.

The General Assembly further finds that there is a need to enhance the grand jury system to improve the ability of the State to detect and investigate crimes involving the election laws, including, but not limited to, those named offenses as specified in Title 7, or any common law crimes involving the election laws where not superseded, or any crime arising out of or in connection with the election laws, or any attempt attempting, aiding, abetting, solicitation soliciting, or conspiracy conspiring to commit a crime involving the election laws.

The General Assembly further finds that there is a need to enhance the grand jury system to improve the ability of the State to detect and investigate crimes involving the environment including, but not limited to, offenses specified in Titles 13, 44, and 48, and crimes involving insurance fraud, including, but not limited to those offenses specified in Article 5, Chapter 55, Title 38, a common law crime arising out of or in connection with environmental laws or insurance fraud, or attempting, aiding, abetting, soliciting, or conspiring to commit a crime involving the environment or insurance fraud.

The General Assembly further finds that related criminal activity often arises out of or in connection with crimes involving narcotics, dangerous drugs, or controlled substances, obscenity, or public corruption, environmental offenses, or insurance fraud, and that the mechanism for detecting and investigating these related crimes also must be improved also.

Accordingly, the General Assembly concludes that a state grand jury should must be allowed to investigate certain crimes related to narcotics, dangerous drugs, and obscenity and also should must also be allowed to investigate crimes involving public corruption, and election laws, environmental offenses, and insurance fraud.

Nothing herein in this article limits the authority of a county grand jury, solicitor, or other appropriate law enforcement personnel to investigate, indict, or prosecute offenses within the jurisdiction of the state grand jury."

SECTION 2. Section 14-7-1615 of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 335 of 1992, is amended by adding:

"(C) `Environmental offenses' are those concerning the water, ambient air, soil or land, or both soil and land, including, but not limited to, violations of the State Safe Drinking Water Act, the Pollution Control Act, the Infectious Waste Management Act, the Hazardous Waste Management Act, the Solid Waste Policy and Management Act, the State Underground Petroleum Response Act, and the Atomic Energy Response Act.

(D) `Insurance fraud' includes those offenses which involve fraud in an insurance transaction including, but not limited to, those offenses specified in Article 5, Chapter 55, Title 38, the Omnibus Insurance Fraud and Reporting Immunity Act."

SECTION 3. Section 14-7-1630(A) of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 335 of 1992, is amended by adding:

"(A) The jurisdiction of a state grand jury impaneled under this article extends throughout the State. The subject matter jurisdiction of a state grand jury in all cases is limited to the following offenses:

(1) crimes involving narcotics, dangerous drugs, or controlled substances, or any crime arising out of or in connection with a crime involving narcotics, dangerous drugs, or controlled substances, including, but not limited to, money laundering as specified in Section 44-53-475, obstruction of justice, perjury or subornation of perjury, and crimes involving obscenity or any attempt, aiding, abetting, solicitation, or conspiracy to commit any of the aforementioned crimes if the crimes are of a multi-county nature or have transpired or are transpiring or have significance in more than one county of this State; and

(2) any crime, statutory, common law or other, involving public corruption as defined in Section 14-7-1615, any crime, statutory, common law or other, arising out of or in connection with a crime involving public corruption as defined in Section 14-7-1615, and any attempt, aiding, abetting, solicitation, or conspiracy to commit any crime, statutory, common law or other, involving public corruption as defined in Section 14-7-1615; and

(3) crimes involving the election laws, including, but not limited to, those named offenses as specified in Title 7, or any common law crimes involving the election laws where not superseded, or any crime arising out of or in connection with the election laws, or any attempt, aiding, abetting, solicitation, or conspiracy to commit a crime involving the election laws.;

(4) crimes involving the waters, ambient air, soil or land, or both soil and land, including, but not limited to, the State Safe Drinking Water Act, the Pollution Control Act, the Infectious Waste Management Act, the Hazardous Waste Management Act, the Solid Waste Policy and Management Act, the State Underground Petroleum Response Act, and the Atomic Energy Response Act or any common law crimes involving environmental laws not superseded or any crime arising out of or in connection with environmental law, or attempting, aiding, abetting, soliciting, or conspiring to commit a crime involving the environment; and

(5) insurance fraud which includes those offenses which involve fraud in an insurance transaction including, but not limited to, those offenses specified in Article 5, Chapter 55, Title 38, the Omnibus Insurance Fraud and Reporting Immunity Act."

SECTION 4. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.