Convicted Murderer Released After Mistake in Paperwork, SC
Posted on Fri, Oct. 13, 2006 S.C. CONVICT SENTENCED TO 30 YEARS RELEASED ON BAIL Mistake in paperwork frees murderer after he served 10 months :roll: BEN CRITES (Hiliton Head) Island Packet COLUMBIA - A man convicted of murdering an off-duty Beaufort County, S.C., sheriff¹s deputy was released from state prison Wednesday after serving 10 months -- apparently due to a paperwork foul-up by the state Attorney General's Office. Thomas Grover Rye, 60, was found guilty of murdering Robert T. "Robb" Odam during a dispute in Eastover, S.C., in 2004. He was sentenced to 30 years, but was released on bail this week. Rye was fighting his conviction. While waiting for his case to be heard by the S.C. Court of Appeals, he asked that court to grant bail, which it denied by a 2-1 vote. Rye appealed the denial to the S.C. Supreme Court. A notice of that request went to the S.C. Attorney General's Office, which intended to fight the appeal, said Mark Plowden, spokesman for Attorney General Henry McMaster. But the notice was misplaced, and because the Attorney General's Office did not file a response, there was no challenge to the request to grant bail. "This office has made a mistake, a mistake the attorney general regrets very much," Plowden said. "The notice of appeal was stapled to the wrong file. It's a terrible error." So Rye posted $50,000 bail and was released Wednesday from the S.C. Department of Corrections, officials said. News of the release stunned Odam's family. "We're just in total disbelief," said Joe Odam, Robb Odam's twin brother. "No one has been able to give answers as to how this happened so quickly." McMaster called Odam's mother-in-law Thursday morning to apologize for the error, Plowden said. The Attorney General's Office filed a motion Tuesday asking the S.C. Supreme Court to reconsider the bail decision. http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/15746866.htm