AIKEN - Another $137,500 could be headed to Aiken, Barnwell and Bamberg counties to prosecute what state Attorney General Henry McMaster calls "the No. 1 crime problem in South Carolina."

That money is 2nd Judicial Circuit Solicitor Barbara Morgan's share of $2.2 million to prosecute domestic violence in South Carolina, should state legislators OK the budget proposal.

As part of a compromise between Mr. McMaster and the South Carolina Solicitors Association, that money would pay for a prosecutor designated to handle domestic violence cases for every county in the state.

Aiken County already has a prosecutor who focuses on domestic violence, Ms. Morgan said, but Bamberg and Barnwell counties do not.

"We know the attorney general knows it needs to be done on a local level," Ms. Morgan said. "But we can't do it with a lack of funding. We need money."

The $2.2 million proposal has several hurdles to clear before any checks are mailed - it's still in a state House of Representatives committee - but it's already overcome one major obstacle: Mr. McMaster and the solicitors association argued over control of the money, but "pretty much met in the middle" this past week to settle the matter, Ms. Morgan said.

The revised plan calls for each county with a designated prosecutor who handles domestic violence cases primarily in magistrate courts, but the funding will be divided evenly among the state's 16 judicial circuits.

Mr. McMaster had proposed splitting it by each of the 46 counties.

There are also accountability provisions that require each solicitor to submit an annual report to the General Assembly.

Mr. McMaster pushed for the prosecutions to be in magistrate court because 90 percent of domestic violence cases are heard there, said Trey Walker, a spokesman for the attorney general's office.

"But most solicitors don't place prosecutors in magistrate-level court," he said. "So the victim and state is left without representation.

"However, the batterer usually has a well-paid attorney there."

That typically affects the conviction rate on first-offense domestic violence prosecutions, Mr. Walker said, which affects second arrests for the offense.

A law that went into effect Jan. 1 makes domestic violence a felony on second offense rather than a misdemeanor, sending the case to circuit court.

But to get there, Mr. Walker said, there has to be a conviction on first offense.

Statistics on conviction rates are difficult to come by, he said, because there's no centralized system in South Carolina for tracking the disposition of such cases in magistrate courts.

But a program started by Mr. McMaster to provide pro bono attorneys to prosecute domestic violence cases in three counties and three cities in South Carolina resulted in the conviction rate for domestic violence increasing from 33 percent to more than 70 percent, Mr. Walker said.

With nearly 36,000 reported victims of domestic violence in 2004, he explained, there is no crime more committed in South Carolina.

"If you took all the other crime complaints and added them all together, they still do not total more than 36,000," he said.

Reach Sandi Martin at (803) 648-1395, ext. 111, or sandi.martin@augustachronicle.com.