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2025-2026 Bill 4778: Electronic recordings of interviews and interrogations - South Carolina Legislature Online
South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026
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H. 4778
STATUS INFORMATION
General Bill
Sponsors: Reps. Pedalino, C. Mitchell and Chumley
Document Path: LC-0381CM26.docx
Introduced in the House on January 13, 2026
Currently residing in the House Committee on
Judiciary
Summary: Electronic recordings of interviews and interrogations
HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS
Date
Body
Action Description with journal page number
12/16/2025
House
Prefiled
12/16/2025
House
Referred to Committee on
Judiciary
1/13/2026
House
Introduced and read first time (
House Journal-page 87
)
1/13/2026
House
Referred to Committee on
Judiciary
(
House Journal-page 87
)
View the latest
legislative information
at the website
VERSIONS OF THIS BILL
12/17/2025
A bill
TO AMEND THE SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY ADDING ARTICLE
10 TO CHAPTER 3, TITLE 23 SO AS TO PROVIDE FOR THE ELECTRONIC RECORDING OF LAW
ENFORCEMENT INTERVIEWS AND INTERROGATIONS.
B
e it enacted by the
General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
S
ECTION 1.
C
hapter 3, Title 24 of the S.C. Code is amended by
adding:
A
rticle 10
E
lectronic Recording of Interviews and Interrogations
S
ection
24-3-1010
.
(
A) The purpose of this article
is to require the creation of an electronic record of an entire custodial
interrogation in order to eliminate disputes about interrogations, thereby
improving prosecution of the guilty while affording protection to the innocent
and increasing court efficiency and confidence.
(
B)
The provisions of this article shall apply to all law enforcement interviews
and custodial interrogations in criminal investigations conducted at any place
of detention.
S
ection
24-3-1020
.
A
s contained in this article:
(
1)
"Electronic recording" means an audio recording that is an authentic, accurate,
unaltered record; or a visual recording that is an authentic, accurate,
unaltered record. A visual and audio recording shall be simultaneously produced
whenever reasonably feasible, provided that a defendant may not raise this as
grounds for suppression of evidence.
(
2)
"In its entirety" means an uninterrupted record that begins at the start of the
interview or custodial interrogation, including a law enforcement officer's
advice to the person in custody of that person's constitutional rights and ends
when the interview or custodial interrogation has completely finished. If the
record is a visual recording of an interview or custodial interrogation, the
camera recording the interview or custodial interrogation must be placed so
that the camera films both the interviewer and the suspect or the interrogator
and the suspect. Brief periods of recess, upon request by the person being
interviewed, the person in custody, or the law enforcement officer, do not
constitute an "interruption" of the record. The record will reflect all
starting and ending times and dates, including the starting time and date of
the recess and the resumption of the interview or interrogation.
(
3)
"Place of detention" means a jail, police or sheriff's station, correctional or
detention facility, holding facility for prisoners, or other facility where
persons are held in custody in connection with criminal charges.
S
ection
24-3-1030
. Any law enforcement officer conducting a custodial interrogation, in
a place of detention, of a juvenile involved in a criminal investigation or any
person involved in a felony criminal investigation shall make an electronic
recording of the custodial interrogation in its entirety if the interview or
custodial interrogation is conducted in a place of detention.
S
ection
24-3-1040
.
(
A) During the
prosecution of any offense to which this article applies, an oral, written,
nonverbal, or sign language statement of a defendant made in the course of an
interview or custodial interrogation may be presented as evidence against the
defendant if an electronic recording was made of the interview or custodial
interrogation in its entirety and the statement is otherwise admissible. If the
court finds that the defendant was subjected to an interview or custodial
interrogation that was not electronically recorded in its entirety, any
statements made by the defendant after that nonelectronically recorded interview
or custodial interrogation, even if made during an interview or interrogation
that is otherwise in compliance with this section, may be questioned with
regard to the voluntariness and reliability of the statement. The State may
establish through clear and convincing evidence that the statement was both
voluntary and reliable and that law enforcement officers had good cause for
failing to electronically record the interview or interrogation in its
entirety. Good cause shall include, but not be limited to:
(
1)
the accused refused to have the interview or interrogation electronically
recorded, and the refusal was electronically recorded; or
(
2)
the failure to electronically record an interview or interrogation in its
entirety was the result of unforeseeable equipment failure, and obtaining
replacement equipment was not feasible.
(
B)
Recordings of nondefendant interviews or custodial interrogations under this article
shall be provided to the juvenile or criminal defendant as part of the rules of
discovery.
S
ection
24-3-1050
.
T
he following remedies shall be granted
as relief for compliance or noncompliance with the requirements of this
section:
(
1) Failure
to comply with any of the requirements of this section shall be considered by
the court in adjudicating motions to suppress a statement of the defendant made
during or after an interview or custodial interrogation.
(
2) Failure
to comply with any of the requirements of this section shall be admissible in
support of claims that the defendant's statement was involuntary or is
unreliable, provided the evidence is otherwise admissible.
(
3) When
evidence of compliance or noncompliance with the requirements of this section
has been presented at trial, the jury shall be instructed that it may consider
credible evidence of compliance or noncompliance to determine whether the
defendant's statement was voluntary and reliable.
S
ection
24-3-1060
.
N
othing in this article precludes the
admission of:
(
1) a
statement made by the accused in open court during trial, before a grand jury,
or at a preliminary hearing;
(
2) a
spontaneous statement that is not made in response to a question;
(
3) a
statement made during arrest processing in response to a routine question;
(
4) a
statement made during an interview or custodial interrogation that is conducted
in another state by law enforcement officers of that state;
(
5) a
statement obtained by a federal law enforcement officer; or
(
6) a
statement used only for impeachment purposes and not as substantive evidence.
S
ection
24-3-1070
. The State shall not destroy or alter any electronic recording of an
interview or custodial interrogation of a defendant convicted of any offense
related to the interview or interrogation until one year after the completion
of all state and federal appeals of the conviction, including the exhaustion of
any appeal of any motion for appropriate relief or habeas corpus proceedings.
Every electronic recording should be clearly identified and catalogued by law
enforcement personnel. Every electronic recording of nondefendant custodial
interrogations may be destroyed at the conclusion of all appeals.
S
ECTION 2. This act takes effect on October 1,
2026, and applies to interviews and custodial interrogations occurring on or
after that date.
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This web page was last updated on January 13, 2026 at 2:40 PM