## Facts

- Jennifer Dykes, age twenty-six, was indicted for lewd act upon a minor under S.C. Code § 16-15-140 based on a sexual relationship with a fourteen-year-old female.
- Dykes pled guilty and received a sentence of fifteen years’ imprisonment, suspended upon service of three years and five years’ probation.
- Dykes’s offense occurred before South Carolina enacted its satellite monitoring statute.
- After release, Dykes was notified verbally and in writing that under S.C. Code § 23-3-540(C), any probation violation would trigger mandatory placement on lifetime GPS monitoring.
- Dykes violated probation, and the circuit court ordered lifetime satellite monitoring under § 23-3-540(C) and (H).
- Section 23-3-540(H) mandated lifetime monitoring and provided no judicial mechanism to review or terminate monitoring.

## Issues

1. Whether S.C. Code § 23-3-540(H)’s requirement of lifetime electronic monitoring without any judicial review violates due process under the South Carolina Constitution (Art. I, § 3).
2. Whether the statute’s initial mandatory imposition of electronic monitoring on qualifying offenders is unconstitutional.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of South Carolina affirmed the circuit court’s order as modified.
- The court held the initial mandatory imposition of satellite monitoring is constitutional.
- The court held the lifetime requirement, to the extent it is automatic and lacks any judicial review or termination mechanism, is unconstitutional under state due process.
- The court permitted monitoring to begin but struck the nonreviewable “for life” aspect and required a review mechanism consistent with due process.

## Legal Principles

- The State may require electronic monitoring for certain sex offenders as part of its supervisory and public-safety framework.
- Due process under the South Carolina Constitution requires some procedure for judicial review or possible termination when electronic monitoring is imposed for life.
- A statutory scheme imposing automatic lifetime monitoring with no opportunity for individualized reassessment or judicial review violates due process.
- Lifetime electronic monitoring is not per se unconstitutional; the constitutional defect is a lifetime mandate that is unconditional and nonreviewable.

## Conclusion

The court upheld South Carolina’s authority to place qualifying offenders on GPS monitoring after a triggering event, but held that due process forbids permanently subjecting an offender to monitoring under a statute that provides no judicial process to reassess or terminate the lifetime requirement.


State v. Dykes, 403 S.C. 499, 744 S.E.2d 505 (2013)