The S.C. House renamed a bill requiring police to wear body cameras after Walter Scott, who was killed in a North Charleston police shooting, en route to unanimously passing the bill Wednesday afternoon.
Now known as the Walter Scott bill, Senate Bill 0047 passed the House on Wednesday 112 to 0.
The decision to pass the bill, however, stops video from being released under the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA - a measure supported by each member of the Aiken County House Delegation.
"I believe the sixth amendment trumps all when seeking a fair trail," said Rep. Bill Taylor, R-Aiken.
Taylor said videos will be made available to police officers and subjects in the video. From there, those groups can decide whether to release video to the public. The bill stops others, including media outlets, from gaining access to video before trials, unless officers and subjects in the video make it available.
The vote comes on the heels of the Aiken Standard and WRDW News-12 using FOIA in an attempt to gain a North Augusta police dash-cam video.
Former North Augusta Public Safety officer Justin Craven fatally shot 68-year-old Ernest Satterwhite on Feb. 9, 2014.
Craven reportedly tried to initiate a traffic stop on Knox Avenue in North Augusta on suspicion of driving under the influence. A slow-speed chase ensued and ended in Edgefield County when Craven shot and killed Satterwhite as Satterwhite sat in his vehicle in front of his home on Rose Drive.
Multiple agencies on the local and state levels refused to release the dash-cam video until Craven's trial, after a felony charge was brought by the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division. That decision by those agencies would be supported by the full passage of the body cameras bill.
Craven's attorney issued a motion on April 20 asking a South Carolina Circuit judge to prohibit the release of any dash-cam video on the grounds that the video should only be viewed in a courtroom "so as not to influence any prospective jurors to be selected for the trial of this case."
In response, the Aiken Standard and WRDW News-12 filed a motion to intervene with the Edgefield County Clerk of Court.
The legislation serves as a measure to provide body cameras to law enforcement officers - an issue that gained further traction after the April 4 shooting of Scott by North Charleston police officer Michael Slager.
An eyewitness to the North Charleston shooting, Feidin Santana, caught the incident on video with his cellphone. Slager has since been fired and charged with murder.
The release of the Scott video helped push legislation through House and Senate subcommittees - a feat that had not been accomplished before its release.
Though progress is being made, the House has made changes that can cause friction in the Senate. Specifically, the House version allows the state to study the issue for six months and then take an additional six months to implement a plan of action for body camera policies.
The Senate bill calls for a quicker action and would set up a fund to pay for body cameras and give state law enforcement officials six months to discuss their usage.
In addition, the Senate has set aside $3.4 million to buy 2,000 cameras and store their data. Overall, buying cameras for about 12,000 law enforcement officers in the state would cost an estimated $30 million.
Though the Senate is pushing for quicker movement of the bill, Taylor said the extra time is needed to map out funding and implementation of the legislation.
"We're saying we need to take our time and get this right," Taylor said.
Derrek Asberry is the SRS beat reporter for the Aiken Standard and has been with the paper since June 2013. He is originally from Vidalia, Ga., and a graduate of Georgia Southern University.
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