Jeffrey Collins/Associated Press

A South Carolina gas station owner has been charged with murder in the death of a 14-year-old boy whom he allegedly chased from the store and shot in the back. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott says station owner Rick Chow incorrectly suspected that Cyrus Carmack-Belton had shoplifted water from the Shell station. After a verbal confrontation, Carmack-Belton fled and was pursued by Chow's son. Rick Chow joined the chase, armed with a pistol. Lott says Chow fired, striking Carmack-Belton in the back.

A judge has put a temporary halt to South Carolina's new law banning most abortions around six weeks of pregnancy until the state Supreme Court can review the measure. The ruling Friday by Judge Clifton Newman came just about 24 hours after Gov. Henry McMaster signed the bill. The decision means South Carolina reverts back to a ban around 20 weeks. The new law is similar to a ban on abortion once cardiac activity can be detected that lawmakers passed in 2021.

Flush with extra money to spend, South Carolina's House and Senate still haven't reached a deal on the state's $13 billion spending plan set to start July 1. While no one is talking publicly about what is causing the delay, an obvious sign of problems came Wednesday, when House Speaker Murrell Smith presided over a nearly empty House chamber. Members were supposed to meet for a session to approve the compromise.

Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh is facing federal charges for the first time after being indicted on 22 financial fraud charges over allegations the former attorney schemed to steal settlement money from clients. The indictments unsealed Wednesday don't appear to reveal any new allegations against Murdaugh, the former South Carolina legal scion who is serving a life sentence without parole for killing his wife and younger son. Murdaugh is also awaiting trial on around 100 other state charges including insurance fraud and tax evasion.

A school shooter serving a life sentence without parole for killing a first grader on a South Carolina playground when he was 14 is asking a judge to lessen his sentence so he can eventually get out of prison. A lawyer for now-21-year-old Jesse Osborne says that would give Osborne some hope of freedom in 50s or 60s and a reason to rehabilitate himself. But five witnesses on Monday asked the judge to keep the life sentence for the 2016 shooting at Townville Elementary.

Authorities say a 37-year-old mother drowned one of her daughters in their South Carolina home and was trying to kill another child when the oldest daughter was awakened by screams and managed to save her sister. Investigators say Jamie Bradley Brun is charged with murder and attempted murder after the early Friday attack in their home on St. Helena Island. Brun is being held without bond.

Alex Murdaugh may be serving a life sentence for killing his wife and son, but the legal system is far from done with him. As he sat in a South Carolina prison cell this week, Murdaugh's lawyers dealt with several problems. They told an insurer looking to force him to repay more than $3 million it awarded in a wrongful death settlement for Murdaugh housekeeper Gloria Satterfield that he lied about the circumstances of her death in a fall. His chief defenders in his murder case asked a judge to release an additional $160,000 from his retirement account to pay for his appeal. They say his six-week murder trial exhausted the $600,000 they have already been given.

A bill that would allow South Carolina to buy the drugs needed for lethal injection without revealing the name of the company who sells them will soon be heading for the governor's desk. The state Senate on Thursday approved minor changes the House made in the shield law bill with almost no debate. The proposal also requires the names of members of the execution team be kept secret. South Carolina has had an unintended 12-year moratorium on the death penalty after its lethal injection drugs passed their expiration date and pharmacies refused to sell the state more.

South Carolina's governor has signed a bill into law that will eventually allow up to 15,000 students in the state to use public money for private schools. Thursday's bill signing capped a nearly 20-year effort that ran through three governors, four House speakers and five education superintendents. The new law is set to start in the fall of 2024. It establishes what are called education scholarship accounts. Parents and guardians can get up to $6,000 a year to pay for tuition, transportation, supplies or technology at either private schools or public schools outside their district. The program will eventually expand to about 15,000 students and to families that make $120,000 or less a year.

For the first time in 25 years, former South Carolina Gov. David Beasley stood before lawmakers in his home state and gave a speech. His wasn't a look back at old times but a talk about his second career — combatting world hunger. As chief of the U.N. World Food Program until recently, Beasley was instrumental in securing a Nobel Peace Prize in 2020 for that organization, which is credited with saving millions of people around the world from starvation.