Michael Rian Torrence was convicted of three murders committed in South Carolina in 1987. The dead were Cynthia Williams, Charlie Bush and Dennis Lollis. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for two of the murders and to death for the third. After a reversal on appeal and a second death sentence, he was executed on September 6, 1996, the seventh person put to death in the state since capital punishment resumed in 1977.
The three killings took place over about a month in 1987. Their dates within that month, and the order in which the three died, are not on record.
Cynthia Williams was killed in Charleston County. Torrence was convicted of her murder there and received a life sentence. The date of that trial is not on record.
Charlie Bush and Dennis Lollis were the victims in the case that went to the Supreme Court of South Carolina. The county where those two deaths occurred and the date of the trial are not on record. Torrence was convicted of the murders of both men, and of armed robbery and burglary.
In the Bush and Lollis case Torrence received a sentence of life imprisonment for the murder of Charlie Bush and a sentence of death for the murder of Dennis Lollis. The life sentence for the murder of Cynthia Williams came in a separate prosecution in Charleston County.
Torrence's direct appeal was combined with the Supreme Court of South Carolina's mandatory review of death sentences. The court heard the case on May 1, 1989, and issued its decision on May 20, 1991. Rehearing was denied on July 24, 1991.
The court affirmed the convictions and the life sentence. It reversed the death sentence and sent the case back for a new sentencing proceeding. The ground was the trial court's refusal of a defense request to tell the jury that Torrence would face parole ineligibility if given a life sentence. The Supreme Court held that the refusal was prejudicial error.
The court also addressed two other points for future cases. It found no prejudice in the trial court's limit on testimony in which Torrence's mother pleaded for her son's life, but it clarified the law for any retrial. It also ruled that in future penalty-phase proceedings juries must decide whether a defendant's disputed statements were voluntary. Three justices wrote separately: one concurred and urged that earlier precedent on parole information be overruled, one concurred and, for the majority, ended the doctrine that allowed review of unpreserved issues in death cases, and one dissented from that change.
Torrence was resentenced to death. His counsel appealed, but Torrence told the Supreme Court of South Carolina that he did not want to appeal his sentence and asked that the appeal be dismissed. In an order dated November 3, 1994, the court sent the matter back to the circuit court for a full evidentiary hearing on whether he was competent to waive his appeal, applying the standard from its 1993 decision in Singleton v. State, and for a new colloquy to confirm that any waiver was voluntary. Counsel's issues were held until that question was decided. The date of the resentencing and the outcome of the competency hearing are not on record.
Torrence was executed on September 6, 1996, after about eight years on death row. He was the seventh person executed in South Carolina since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977.
The county of the Bush and Lollis trial, the dates of the three deaths, the date of each trial, the date of the resentencing, the details of Torrence's early life and the circumstances of his arrest are not on record. Any other deaths attributed to him are not on record.
1987: Cynthia Williams, Charlie Bush and Dennis Lollis die over a period of about a month in South Carolina.
Date not on record: Torrence is convicted of the murder of Cynthia Williams in Charleston County and receives a life sentence.
Date not on record: Torrence is convicted of the murders of Charlie Bush and Dennis Lollis, armed robbery and burglary; life for the murder of Charlie Bush, death for the murder of Dennis Lollis.
May 1, 1989: The Supreme Court of South Carolina hears his appeal.
May 20, 1991: The court affirms the convictions and the life sentence, reverses the death sentence and orders a new sentencing proceeding.
July 24, 1991: Rehearing denied.
Date not on record: Resentenced to death.
November 3, 1994: The court orders a competency hearing after Torrence asks to drop his appeal.
September 6, 1996: Torrence is executed in South Carolina.