Location

Defendant(s)

Date of Alleged Crime

Paul Mazzell was convicted of the murder of Ricky Lee Seagraves.  Seagraves was abducted at gunpoint from a convenience store in Ladson.  He was not seen again for three years until police, acting on a jailhouse tip, dug up his bones from a shallow grave off of highway S.C. 61.  The tipster, Danny Hogg, said he abducted Seagraves on the orders of an associate named Paul Mazzell.  Hogg said he brought Seagraves to Mazzell who killed and buried him.  Because of Hogg’s testimony, Mazzell was convicted of Seagraves’ murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Hogg was given immunity in the case even though he failed a lie detector test.  Witnesses who had heard Hogg brag of killing Seagraves were not allowed to testify.  Even Hogg's wife gave the FBI a statement implicating Hogg as the killer. The trial judge gave improper instructions to the jury that Mazzell's attorney failed to challenge.  The instructions allowed the jury to convict Mazzell of murder even if they thought he was not present at the scene of the crime.  One juror was an uncle of a law enforcement agent who worked on the case.

Mazzell admitted being an accessory after the fact in that he helped to bury Seagraves.  Had he known that Seagraves was dead, he said there was no way he would he would have met with Hogg.  He did not contact authorities “because I ain't no damn rat.”  Mazzell has been called the kingpin of the Dixie Mafia and admits he is no saint.  "I ran some clubs, some gambling, and a little prostitution."  Mazell was paroled in 2005 at age 76.  A federal judge has also ordered a retrial because the trial judge had given the jury faulty instructions.  (City Paper) (Online Petition)  [4/07]

William "Junior" Pierce was convicted of raping and murdering Margaret "Peg" Cuttino, 13, the daughter of a state senator.  Cuttino was reported missing on Dec. 18 and her body was found on Dec. 30.  Pierce, who had an IQ that "barely broke 70" and who was a known serial confessor, confessed to this murder apparently after being tortured by Sheriff "Red" Carter.  A document supports Pierce's contention that his confession was coerced by physical abuse consisting of burns, bruises, and cuts to his "privates."

In order to convict Pierce the prosecution theorized that Cuttino was murdered on Dec. 18, but when her body was found, the sperm evidence was not much degraded and this evidence implied that she was not killed before Dec. 25.  Public disagreement with the verdict arose starting with an uncalled witness who allegedly saw Cuttino on the afternoon of Dec. 19.  The county coroner joined the opposition.  Because of new evidence that arose following the conviction, it is highly likely that Pierce would be acquitted if he could get a retrial, but getting a retrial because of new evidence is very difficult under South Carolina law.  New technology raised the possibility of DNA testing, but the authorities contend Hurricane Hugo destroyed the biological evidence in 1989.

Pierce is not a glamorous defendant, having been convicted, after confessing, to three murders in Georgia, perhaps because of techniques similar to those used by Sheriff Carter.  Public opposition to the verdict seems surprising since an acquittal would do little to free Pierce, but physical evidence that Cuttino was killed much later than Dec. 18 seems compelling and such a finding would exonerate Pierce.  (CrimeLibrary)  [9/05]