UPDATE (6:20pm) Finney has been found alive in Lee County, our sister station WSPA reports.
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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – Deputies say 85-year-old former South Carolina Chief Justice Ernest Finney is missing.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said in a news release that Finney drove off from his home northeast of Columbia in a 2007 gray Toyota Highlander around 4:30 p.m. Friday. The sheriff’s office sent out the notice Finney was missing less than an hour later.
Lott says Finney has a very serious medical condition that puts him in extreme risk. A spokesman for the sheriff’s department wouldn’t elaborate.
Finney was wearing a red plaid shirt and black pants. His home is near the intersection of Interstates 20 and 77.
Finney became the first African-American to become chief justice in South Carolina in 1994. He spent nearly 15 years on the state’s highest court.
