Circuit Judge Newman, among others, vie for seat on SC Supreme Court amid diversity shortages

Two Black female candidates who qualified to fill a seat on the South Carolina Supreme Court could bring diversity to a currently all-male, all-white bench.

Circuit Court Judges Jocelyn Newman — the daughter of Judge Clifton Newman, who received international recognition while presiding over Alex Murdaugh’s double murder trial last year — and Deadra Jefferson are among six candidates seeking to replace Supreme Court Associate Justice John Kittredge, according to a news release Monday by the South Carolina Judicial Merit Selection Commission. Kittredge was recently selected to replace Don Beatty (the only Black jurist on the court) as chief justice, who’s set to retire this summer.

Newman and Jefferson present an opportunity for lawmakers to improve the lack of diversity on the state’s high court — an issue some have been vocal about. Following Beatty’s retirement, the Supreme Court would consist of all white males.

Newman was elected judge for the 10th Circuit Court in 2016. Previously, she served as law clerk for now-retired Circuit Court Judge Thomas Cooper Jr., before working as an assistant solicitor for the Fifth Judicial Circuit, and entering private practice with the law firm of Richardson Plowden & Robinson, in Columbia.

Jefferson became a resident family court judge for the Ninth Circuit in 1996. She served in that role until she was elected as a resident circuit judge in 2001.

Other candidates for Kittredge’s soon-to-be-vacated seat include, appeals court Judges Blake Hewitt and Leticia Verdin, administrative law Judge Ralph Anderson, and circuit court Judge Keith Kelley.

The lack of racial and gender diversity in the state’s high salaried judiciary is a political and social issue in South Carolina. The state has only four Black judges among 49 trial judge positions, two of which are vacant after the retirement of two Black judges last year. Judges make approximately $200,000 a year.