Todd Kohlhepp (pic­tured) plead­ed guilty to sev­en South Carolina mur­ders on May 26, 2017 and was sen­tenced to sev­en con­sec­u­tive life sen­tences, plus 60 addi­tion­al years for the kid­nap­ping and sex­u­al assault of sur­viv­ing vic­tim Kala Brown. Kohlhepp made a deal with pros­e­cu­tors to avoid the death penal­ty, pro­vid­ing infor­ma­tion that solved four mur­ders at a motor­cy­cle store in 2003 and spar­ing Brown and the fam­i­lies of the mur­der vic­tims from endur­ing a lengthy tri­al and appeals process. Seventh Judicial Circuit Solicitor Barry Barnette said ​“This was a death penal­ty case. No doubt about it. But it is not fair for fam­i­lies to wait years and years for jus­tice.” South Carolina has not had an exe­cu­tion since 2011 and has imposed only one new death sen­tence in that peri­od. Brown, who Kohlhepp kept chained in a stor­age con­tain­er and raped dai­ly for more than two months, told pros­e­cu­tors she sup­port­ed the deal, report­ed­ly say­ing, ​“he’s the killer, not me.” Joanne Shiflet, the moth­er of mur­der vic­tim Charles David Carver, said she appre­ci­at­ed the cer­tain­ty of Kohlhepp’s sen­tence: ​“I am a lot calmer now. There is no appre­hen­sion. There is no what if. We know he is going away and going to stay gone.” Other mul­ti­ple killers have also received plea deals to avoid death sen­tences: In 2003, ​“Green River” ser­i­al killer Gary Ridgway avoid­ed the death penal­ty in Washington State by plead­ing guilty to 48 counts of aggra­vat­ed mur­der and pro­vid­ing infor­ma­tion that solved 48 killings and helped author­i­ties recov­er the remains of numer­ous vic­tims who had been miss­ing for near­ly two decades. Roland Dominique, who plead­ed guilty to eight mur­ders in Louisiana and was a sus­pect in 15 more, received a life sen­tence at the request of vic­tims’ fam­i­lies in 2008.

(N. Mayo, ​“Prosecutor: Todd Kohlhepp plea hear­ing was not about giv­ing him pun­ish­ment he deserved,” Citizen-Times, May 26, 2017; ​“Todd Kohlhepp pleads guilty in sev­en South Carolina slay­ings,” CBS News, May 26, 2017; G. Tuchman ​“Green River Killer Avoids Death in Plea Deal,” CNN, November 6, 2003.) See Arbitrariness and Victims. Note: DPIC will not ordi­nar­i­ly pub­lish the iden­ti­ty of sex­u­al assault vic­tims; how­ev­er, Ms. Brown has vol­un­tar­i­ly come for­ward to dis­cuss the case with the media.

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