CONWAY, SC (WBTW)- Horry County courts are still cancelled amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Despite trials being put on hold, Solicitor Jimmy Richardson said they’re still prepping cases and the critical focus now is the jail.
Solicitor Richardson said they’re going to try to have a term of court on April 13th for inmates. As a precaution, they’ll do video hearings from the jail, with the judge in the courtroom.
They’ll do everything via video except a trial. Richardson believes the number of inmates are down due to COVID-19. He said typically there’s around 750 inmates at J. Reuben Long with a capacity of 1,000. As of Monday, there are 591 inmates.
Richardson said they’re also restacking the order of cases and those that can’t be worked out at the jail be tried first because when they’re back in the courtroom it will be crunch time.
“We still have to move these through in 10 months now or less where last year we had 12 months to move them through so it will be a challenge,” said 15th Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson.
Meanwhile, as the solicitor’s office will be working with a tighter turn around time for cases, they may still be down to just two judges. The general assembly has not elected an at large judge to replace Judge Hyman who’s retiring. Richardson said they will bring retired judges to help.