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The Episcopal Church: SC Supreme Court Justice Unmask Disturbing Truth

The Episcopal Church: SC Supreme Court Justice Unmask Disturbing Truth

By Ladson F. Mills III
www.virtueonline.org
October 1, 2015

South Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice Kaye Hearn is absolutely correct. What she may lack in judgment she more than makes up for in perceptiveness in assuming there will be no accountability for not recusing herself from the recent case between the national church and the Diocese of South Carolina.

A statement released by the SC Supreme Court states that Justice Hearn was not requested to do so why should she? What concern could there possibly be that she is listed as a member of the Episcopal Forum of South Carolina which is squarely in the camp of the national church. What possible conflict of interest is her membership in St. Anne's Episcopal Church Conway, South Carolina that has remained with the national church and where her husband presently serves on the vestry. Finally, the plaintiff in the case Charles vonRosenberg is her bishop!

There is an emerging criticism with the attorneys for the Diocese of Carolina for not demanding that she remove herself. And herein lies the rub.

They are afraid to do so and with good reason. This case is important, but it will not be their last in her court. No use burning bridges and possibly offending other justices risking a possible backlash.

Sadly in South Carolina Courts judicial arrogance has become an all too regular occurrence. In another case in 2013 South Carolina Circuit Court Justice Alison Lee granted an unusually favorable bond over the strenuous objection of the prosecutor for Lorenzo Young.

His Crimes:

 First degree burglary
 Possession of a weapon during a violent crime
 Criminal conspiracy
 Three counts of armed robbery
 Kidnapping, assault and of a high and aggravated nature.

While free on bond Young murdered Kelly Hunnewell a 33-year old divorced mother of four working third shift at a Columbia South Carolina Bakery. She had chosen this shift because it allowed her to provide for her children as well as spend mornings with them. Although she lived in a mixed race neighborhood her neighbor Shontell Green was quick to point out, she was the only white lady on this block, and she let those kids mingle and play. Those kids loved everybody on this block.

Neither Jesse Jackson nor Al Sharpton deemed this important enough to speak out on behalf of Hunnewell or her orphaned children. Charleston activist Elder James Johnson III of the National Action Network did not threaten civil disobedience or order protest as he regularly does when the victim is African-American.

Judge Alison Lee's reward for her judicial arrogance was to receive a nomination to the federal bench. Her failings were so egregious the nomination was withdrawn because she could not obtain the required support of her two senators. Amazingly, this did not preclude her from receiving the American Bar Association's highest rating of Well Qualified.

One defense attorney who regularly practices in her court was effusive in his praise of her abilities. I wonder what Kelly Hunnewell's children think of her abilities as they face life without their mother. Apparently no one appears to care that she was violently murdered while begging her killers to please have mercy. There is nothing about this average family that make them worthy of being a cause celebre. Well Qualified Indeed!!!

Having sat through three weeks of trial in St George last year as well as watching the recent SC Supreme Court hearing on close circuit television I truly do not know which side the neutral principle of law favors. I have observed that unlike Duty which is the most sublime word in the English language the law, it seems, thrives on obtuse contortion.

This, however goes much deeper than the legal battle between the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of South Carolina. Judge Hearn clearly believes her position as a Supreme Court Justice makes her invulnerable. The end justifies the means and appearances be dammed.

We should not care if every lawyer in South Carolina is quaking in their collective legal briefs. It high time the outrage and aggression so often used in cross examination be used to clean up their own house. If the legal community is incapable of policing itself then it must fall to the rest of us. The high toned rhetoric of the sanctity of the rule of lawrings incredibly hollow when its senior practitioners are allowed to display such disdainful behavior and lack of impartiality.

The behavior modeled in the South Carolina Supreme Court was disgraceful. To allow it to stand unchallenged would be scandalous.

Ladson F. Mills III is a retired priest with over thirty years pastoral experience. He is retired and lives with is wife in South Carolina. He currently serves as Scholar in Residence at Church of Our Saviour, Johns Island. He is a regular contributor to Virtueonline.

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