A longtime Charleston-based circuit court judge is once more seeking a seat on the state's highest court.
Ninth Circuit Judge Deadra Jefferson is among six people from across the state hoping to fill the vacancy created by retiring Chief Justice Donald Beatty.
Jefferson and five other judges will appear before the Judicial Merit Selection Commission — the Legislature's screening panel for jurists — starting at 9 a.m. on May 9. Three of the judges will then go for a vote before the full Legislature in June.
State lawmakers unanimously elected Justice John Kittredge to replace Beatty as chief justice in early March. South Carolina requires judges to retire at age 72. Kittredge's seat on the high court will become vacant after he moves into the chief justice's role this summer.
Beatty's departure leaves open whether the state's top court will be all-White and all-male. Beatty is the only current Black member of the court, and none of the justices are female.
Three of the six candidates going before the Judicial Merit Selection Commission in May are women. Of the three women, two are Black. All of the male candidates are White.
Jefferson is the chief administrative judge for the state courts in Charleston and Berkeley counties, which comprise the circuit. Her responsibilities include managing the court's calendar. She previously sought a seat on the high court in 2007 and 2009. She first became a judge in 1996 when lawmakers elected her to a Family Court judgeship.
Jefferson did not respond to a request for comment.
Other judges applying for the seat include Ralph King "Tripp" Anderson of Columbia, R. Keith Kelly of Woodruff, Jocelyn Newman of Columbia, Letitia Verdin of Greenville and Blake Hewitt of Conway.
Anderson serves as the chief administrative law judge for the state's Administrative Law Court. He has sought a seat on the state Supreme Court several times, including 2015, 2016 and 2022. He was elected to the Administrative Law Court in 1994, a year after the Legislature created the court to handle disputes concerning state agency decisions.
Some of his more visible decisions relate to enforcing sea wall and cruise ship rules. In the Lowcountry, he is set to hear arguments over whether an Isle of Palms man's sea wall outside his beachfront home is allowed.
Kelly is a former two-term Republican state representative. He lost to a primary challenger in 2010. He has served as a circuit court judge for 11 years and previously sought a seat on the high court in 2016.
Newman has been a circuit court judge for eight years. In 2022, she ruled the use of the electric chair or firing squad to execute death row inmates was unconstitutional, The Associated Press reported. The state appealed her ruling, and the state Supreme Court heard arguments in the case in February, The Post and Courier previously reported. Kittredge, who will become the chief justice, appeared skeptical of Newman's decision. Newman is also the daughter of Judge Clifton Newman, the recently retired judge who presided over the state trials of Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced Hampton attorney convicted of killing his wife and son and swindling millions from those who trusted him.
Verdin is an appellate court judge elected by the Legislature in 2023. She previously served as circuit court judge for 12 years and was a Family Court judge prior to that, starting in 2008. She twice sat as an acting state Supreme Court justice for two different cases, according to her 2022 applicant information to become an appellate court judge.
Hewitt was elected as an appellate court judge in 2019. It is his first time serving on the bench after a decade of working as a private practice attorney specializing in appellate litigation. He previously clerked for former Chief Justice Jean Toal. His election to the Court of Appeals caused controversy in 2019 when the Legislature picked him over a Black female judge with more than 20 years of experience on the bench, The Associated Press reported. The election prompted some Black lawmakers to briefly walk out of judicial elections.
South Carolina is one of two states where lawmakers elect judges. The other state is Virginia.
