Solicitor Scarlett Wilson talks about Jamal Sutherland case, potential charges

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - It’s Solicitor Scarlett Wilson’s job to decide whether to bring charges against the two deputies who reportedly tased Jamal Sutherland in the Charleston County jail back in January.

Sutherland died after that incident, and those two deputies have been fired.

In a one-on-one interview, Wilson said like so many other people she was greatly disturbed seeing the Sutherland video.

“But my role as solicitor isn’t to act on my feelings or to act on my emotions,” Wilson said. “I have to act on the evidence that’s brought to me.”

Wilson cited a press release regarding the current steps she’s taking on the ongoing investigation into the case.

“I’ve sent out a release detailing what the pathologist, an independent person who looked at this case, what they found,” she said. “And they did not find that the deputies’ actions were the proximate cause.”

Wilson said she’s hired another pathologist to investigate, another set of eyes she says, to look at the case to help her determine if charges should be filed.

Wilson said she doesn’t think Sutherland’s body needs to be exhumed, and she said that she’s hoping to wrap up the investigation and make her decision no later than June 30.