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Stone promoted to solicitor

Prosecutor to face November election

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Gov. Mark Sanford has appointed Beaufort County Deputy Solicitor Duffie Stone as the new solicitor for the 14th Judicial Circuit, the only five-county circuit in South Carolina.

Stone, 42, replaced Randolph Murdaugh III as the head prosecutor for Beaufort, Jasper, Colleton, Hampton and Allendale counties on Saturday. It's the first time in 85 years that a member of the Murdaugh family is not the 14th Circuit solicitor. Murdaugh's grandfather and father each held the job.

"It's a tremendous honor," Stone said Saturday about succeeding the Murdaugh dynasty. "The Murdaugh name has been synonymous with prosecution and I'm very humbled.

"I've been a prosecutor most of my life, and I'm excited about continuing to do it in this capacity."

Stone will be sworn in by Beaufort County Circuit Court Judge Perry Buckner at 3 p.m. Tuesday in courtroom 1 of the Beaufort County Courthouse. He said he will serve as solicitor for all of 2006 but must win election in November to secure a four-year term that would begin Jan. 1, 2007.

Sanford announced the appointment Saturday, Murdaugh's last day as solicitor. The 65-year-old Hampton resident declared his retirement intentions in October.

The governor could not be reached Saturday for comment on why he chose Stone.

Murdaugh and the sheriffs of the five counties in the circuit recommended Stone for the job.

"He's a darn good lawyer," Murdaugh said of Stone. "He's got a head on his shoulders, he's compassionate and is an excellent prosecutor."

Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner said Stone's dedication to the law and his knowledge of it makes him a good fit.

"He takes his job very seriously," Tanner said. "I'm impressed with his knowledge of law, his trial experience and his ability to try cases. He's very approachable and has a good rapport with law enforcement."

With Stone on the job, the 14th Judicial Circuit Solicitor's Office headquarters will move from Hampton to the Beaufort County Courthouse. Tanner said that will be beneficial because more cases are tried in Beaufort County than the other four counties in the circuit.

Making the solicitor' office more proactive is at the top of his list of goals as solicitor, Stone said. He said he will initiate an on-call solicitor system this month to help accomplish that.

In Beaufort County, the system will place one of six assistant solicitors on call 24 hours every day to assist law enforcement. It also will allow solicitors to immediately begin interviewing victims and witnesses at crime scenes, which Stone said will help speed up the judicial process.

Stone said he hopes to start the system in all of the circuit's

counties.

"I don't want us to be the last people to meet the victims, the last people to talk to witnesses," he said. "I want us to get involved on the front end of the cases."

Stone lives with his wife and three children on Hilton Head Island and has an office in greater Bluffton. He has been in public service since he started working for the Richland County Solicitor's Office in 1989.

He earned a bachelor's degree from Wofford College in 1985, where he majored in English and government. He earned his law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1988.

Among other commendations, Stone was named the state's Young Lawyer of the Year in 1993 while he was the director of the South Carolina Sentencing Guidelines Commission.

As Beaufort County deputy solicitor from 1997 through 2005, Stone oversaw all cases in the county for the 14th Judicial Circuit. During that time, he also was the special assistant U.S. attorney, a liaison between the Solicitor's Office and the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Stone has worked on five cases in which the prosecution was seeking the death sentence. None had a greater impact on him than the case against Abdiyyah ben Alkebulanyahh, the Burton man then known as Tyree Roberts who was sentenced to death in October 2003 for killing two Beaufort County Sheriff's Office deputies.

The trial lasted 26 days -- Stone's longest.

"It was an extremely difficult case emotionally, extremely important to law enforcement and to me," he said. "It was my greatest challenge, and it was exhausting."

Stone said he knows that the job carries such challenges, but he says he's ready for it.

"I'll make decisions that sometimes are unpopular with people and sometimes unpopular with law enforcement," he said. "But it has to be ethical. You don't take politics into view."

Contact Ben Crites at 706-8138 or . To

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