Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/South Carolina Department of Corrections and Getty Images
This week, thrice accused rapist Bowen Turner became a free man after serving just over a year for a probation violation—a probation sentence originally orchestrated by South Carolina lawyer-legislator defense attorney Brad Hutto and prosecutor-turned-judicial candidate David Miller. In October, Dallas Stoller’s parents first learned their daughter’s alleged rapist would be released from prison by an automated message from the South Carolina Department of Corrections. Bowen Turner’s release would be one day after the two-year anniversary of Dallas’ death from self-inflicted wounds on November 14, 2021.
I first learned about Dallas’ case in 2019, when I was a reporter for The Island Packet in Hilton Head, S.C., investigating the boat crash that killed Mallory Beach. One of South Carolina’s most privileged sons, Paul Murdaugh, would end up being charged for her death, but he would be killed by his father, Alex Murdaugh, before he could stand trial. The case was complicated and infuriating, and it was my first glimpse into South Carolina’s “two systems of justice,” where the rich and powerful were given sweetheart backroom deals for their crimes, or their charges disappeared altogether.
At the time, I remember thinking Bowen Turner sounded a lot like Paul Murdaugh. Bowen was a privileged kid who had allegedly raped three girls–including high school student Dallas Stoller–in three different South Carolina counties between 2018 and 2019. When he was arrested and charged in 2019 with one, Bowen was wearing a collared shirt—not a prison jumpsuit—in his mugshot, and he also had a state senator, Brad Hutto, representing him, just like Paul Murdaugh had his father’s cronies state Senator Dick Harpootlian and high profile attorney Jim Griffin as his defense team.