prison sentence

Justices on South Carolina's highest court have erased an order that cut 16 years off a convicted murderer's sentence. The prisoner secured the deal after reporting another inmate's escape that had gone undetected for two days. The 3-2 ruling vacating the reduced sentence for Jeroid Price came less than two hours after the South Carolina Supreme Court heard arguments in the case. The justices wrote that they would explain their decision later. During oral arguments Wednesday, the justices said in part that they didn't like Price's deal having been kept secret. Price walked out of prison 19 years into his 35-year murder sentence. The state is arguing that the deal to release him was invalid.