SLED investigating death threat against solicitor

TREY GOWDY Seventh Circuit Solicitor Trey Gowdy was honored in San Francisco Friday with an award from his peers across the country for his work in prosecuting death penalty cases.

Gowdy, whose district includes Cherokee and Spartanburg counties, has prosecuted six capital cases in the past eight years and each resulted in a death penalty sentence from a jury. His work is being recognized at the 29th Annual Summer Conference of the Association of Government Attorneys.

Gowdy was honored at the same time Spartanburg Police and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division were investigating an apparent death threat that recently was mailed to Gowdy by an inmate in the state Department of Corrections system.

"The solicitor has received multiple threats over the years and keeps moving forward," said Murray Glenn, a spokesman for the solicitor's office. "He doesn't let threats slow him down at all."

Ironically, the man who allegedly mailed the death threat to Gowdy wasn't personally prosecuted by him.

"We have every confidence law enforcement will get to the bottom of this and the person responsible will be held accountable." Glenn said.

Gowdy couldn't be reached for comment about the threats.

In a written statement about the award he received in San Francisco, Gowdy said: "I will spend my time traveling to and from this conference reflecting on the lives of the victims I was honored to seek justice for. I don't think of myself as seeking the death penalty. I see it as asking juries to weigh and balance the circumstances of the crime, the character of the defendant and the impact of these crimes on the community. Jurors must then render a verdict that reflects the collective conscience of the community."