Biography

Solicitor Scarlett A. Wilson was confirmed by the South Carolina State Senate on August 3, 2007, to become the first woman to hold the office of Solicitor for the Ninth Judicial Circuit. The citizens of Berkeley and Charleston Counties elected Solicitor Wilson to hold the position in 2008, and re-elected her in 2012 and 2016. Governors Sanford, Haley and McMaster each have appointed Solicitor Wilson to serve as a Commissioner on the South Carolina Commission for Prosecution Coordination. In addition, Governors Haley and McMaster appointed Solicitor Wilson to serve as a member of the State Child Fatality Advisory Committee.
Solicitor Wilson is known as a tough but compassionate prosecutor, having won the Law Enforcement Victim’s Advocate Solicitor of the Year Award and the South Carolina Victim Assistance Network’s Criminal Justice Award for Outstanding Service to Victims. Solicitor Wilson has played an integral role in the implementation of Charleston County’s Safety & Justice Challenge grant awarded by the John D. and Catherine MacArthur Foundation. The goal of the grant was to keep dangerous people behind bars and to provide law enforcement and the court more options when dealing with lower-risk, non-violent offenders. Work begun by the grant is on going and shepherded by Solicitor Wilson and other members of the Charleston County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council.
Solicitor Wilson has been a career prosecutor. After graduating from Clemson University in 1989 and the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1992, she was a law clerk for the Honorable Don S. Rushing. Solicitor Wilson began her career in prosecution working as a Fifth Circuit Assistant Solicitor. She next joined the United States Attorney’s Office and its Violent Crimes Task Force as an Assistant United States Attorney where she was a joint winner of the Department of Justice Director’s Award for Superior Performance, the highest award given by the Department of Justice to an AUSA. In January 2001, Scarlett left the United States Attorney’s Office to serve as Chief Deputy Solicitor for then Solicitor Ralph E. Hoisington. She served as Chief Deputy until her appointment to Solicitor after Solicitor Hoisington’s death.
Solicitor Wilson is a native of Hemingway, South Carolina.