South Carolina H 4778: Benjamin Keagborekuzi Ikenchuku Gbenoba, the Dein of Agbor Kingdom

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 4778 Text of Previous Version (Dec. 17, 2025) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 4778

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A bill

TO AMEND THE SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY ADDING ARTICLE 
10 TO CHAPTER 3, TITLE 23 SO AS TO PROVIDE FOR THE ELECTRONIC RECORDING OF LAW 
ENFORCEMENT INTERVIEWS AND INTERROGATIONS.

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

SECTION 1. Chapter 3, Title 24 of the S.C. Code is amended by 
adding:

Article 10

Electronic Recording of Interviews and Interrogations

 Section 
24-3-1010. (A) The purpose of this article 
is to require the creation of an electronic record of an entire custodial 
interrogation in order to eliminate disputes about interrogations, thereby 
improving prosecution of the guilty while affording protection to the innocent 
and increasing court efficiency and confidence.

 (B) 
The provisions of this article shall apply to all law enforcement interviews 
and custodial interrogations in criminal investigations conducted at any place 
of detention.

 Section 
24-3-1020. As contained in this article:

 (1) 
"Electronic recording" means an audio recording that is an authentic, accurate, 
unaltered record; or a visual recording that is an authentic, accurate, 
unaltered record. A visual and audio recording shall be simultaneously produced 
whenever reasonably feasible, provided that a defendant may not raise this as 
grounds for suppression of evidence.

 (2) 
"In its entirety" means an uninterrupted record that begins at the start of the 
interview or custodial interrogation, including a law enforcement officer's 
advice to the person in custody of that person's constitutional rights and ends 
when the interview or custodial interrogation has completely finished. If the 
record is a visual recording of an interview or custodial interrogation, the 
camera recording the interview or custodial interrogation must be placed so 
that the camera films both the interviewer and the suspect or the interrogator 
and the suspect. Brief periods of recess, upon request by the person being 
interviewed, the person in custody, or the law enforcement officer, do not 
constitute an "interruption" of the record. The record will reflect all 
starting and ending times and dates, including the starting time and date of 
the recess and the resumption of the interview or interrogation.

 (3) 
"Place of detention" means a jail, police or sheriff's station, correctional or 
detention facility, holding facility for prisoners, or other facility where 
persons are held in custody in connection with criminal charges.

 Section 
24-3-1030. Any law enforcement officer conducting a custodial interrogation, in 
a place of detention, of a juvenile involved in a criminal investigation or any 
person involved in a felony criminal investigation shall make an electronic 
recording of the custodial interrogation in its entirety if the interview or 
custodial interrogation is conducted in a place of detention.

 Section 
24-3-1040. (A) During the 
prosecution of any offense to which this article applies, an oral, written, 
nonverbal, or sign language statement of a defendant made in the course of an 
interview or custodial interrogation may be presented as evidence against the 
defendant if an electronic recording was made of the interview or custodial 
interrogation in its entirety and the statement is otherwise admissible. If the 
court finds that the defendant was subjected to an interview or custodial 
interrogation that was not electronically recorded in its entirety, any 
statements made by the defendant after that nonelectronically recorded interview 
or custodial interrogation, even if made during an interview or interrogation 
that is otherwise in compliance with this section, may be questioned with 
regard to the voluntariness and reliability of the statement. The State may 
establish through clear and convincing evidence that the statement was both 
voluntary and reliable and that law enforcement officers had good cause for 
failing to electronically record the interview or interrogation in its 
entirety. Good cause shall include, but not be limited to:

 (1) 
the accused refused to have the interview or interrogation electronically 
recorded, and the refusal was electronically recorded; or

 (2) 
the failure to electronically record an interview or interrogation in its 
entirety was the result of unforeseeable equipment failure, and obtaining 
replacement equipment was not feasible.

 (B) 
Recordings of nondefendant interviews or custodial interrogations under this article 
shall be provided to the juvenile or criminal defendant as part of the rules of 
discovery.

 Section 
24-3-1050. The following remedies shall be granted 
as relief for compliance or noncompliance with th