CONWAY, S.C. (WBTW) — The victims of a 2022 cross burning incident just outside Conway praised city leaders on Monday after they made the municipality South Carolina’s latest to adopt a hate crime law.
“We are all excited to be a part of this moment. A moment that offers a solution, a step toward closure and the possibility of healing for so many,” Monica Williams said at a city council meeting. “Hate in any form must be confronted with strength and resolve, and today you had the opportunity to take a stand to ensure our laws reflect respect, dignity and protection for all.”
Alexis Paige Hartnett and Worden Evander Butler, both of Conway, have been charged with second-degree harassment in connection with the cross burning.
‘Center for harassing:’ Horry County says couple accused of cross burning are chronic safety threat The charges stem from multiple incidents between Nov. 23 and Nov. 24 on Corbett Drive, according to an Horry County police report. During one of the incidents, Butler and Hartnett erected a cross facing the victim’s home and set it on fire.
Conway officials began exploring the possibility of a local hate crime law in March and gave initial approval to a formal policy earlier this month, spurred not only by the cross burning but a string of incidents involving the spread of antisemitic literature that could only be punished under littering violations.
Anyone convicted under the local ordinance can be jailed for up to 30 days and fined $500. Several other communities across the Grand Strand and Pee Dee have similar ordinances in place including Florence, Lake City and Myrtle Beach.
Monica Williams and her husband Shawn, who currently live in Charlotte but plan to retire in Conway, have spent nearly two years urging lawmakers to remove South Carolina’s status as one of just two states without a hate crime measure on the books. Wyoming is the other.
The 2023-2024 regular session of the South Carolina General Assembly has ended, and supporters who want the state to implement a hate crimes law will have to wait a little bit longer.
The bill, known as the Clementa C. Pickney Act, would have enhanced penalties for violent crimes fueled by hate. It’s named after a state senator and one of the nine victims of the 2015 church shooting in Charleston.
The bill previously passed the house in March of 2023, where it then went to a Senate committee and sat undebated on the chamber’s calendar for nearly a year.
In Conway on Monday, Shawn Williams said the city’s vote was an historic decision.
“This ordinance is a call to action for all of us. It challenges us to engage in conversations about tolerance and understanding. It encourages us to educate ourselves and our neighbors to foster empathy and compassion and build bridges where there have been walls.”
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Adam Benson joined the News13 digital team in January 2024. He is a veteran South Carolina reporter with previous stops at the Greenwood Index-Journal, Post & Courier and The Sun News in Myrtle Beach. Adam is a Boston native and University of Utah graduate. Follow Adam on X, formerly Twitter, at @AdamNewshound12 . See more of his work here .
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