In March of 2008 Richard Gagnon was prosecuted by Greg Hembree and Fran Humphries and convicted for the 2005 double murder of Charles Parker Sr., and his wife, Diane. Through DNA evidence Richard Gagnon was later exonerated after spending nearly a decade in prison for a crime he did not commit. Amazingly Greg Hembree and Fran Humphries would not admit wrongdoing in the face of irrefutable proof they prosecuted the wrong person, and just as amazingly they still believe Richard Gagnon is guilty, clearly ignoring irrefutable scientific evidence of his innocence.

Before Fran Humphries partnered with his college buddy Greg Hembree in Horry County, he was working as a deputy prosecutor for Lexington County, South Carolina (Lexington County SC is currently being sued by the ACLU for unconstitutional confinements). From 1996 to 1999 Fran Humphries was the deputy solicitor in Lexington County and was the prosecuting attorney for the B.J. Quattlebaum trial. The Lexington County Sheriff’s office illegally taped a confidential meeting between B.J. Quattlebaum with his attorney. Two different attorneys testified that Fran Humphries was aware this illegal taping had occurred. Fran Humphries denied these allegations, was subsequently indicted and charged by federal prosecutors with lying to a federal grand jury about when he knew the conversation between the murder suspect and the lawyer was taped. The corruption alleged against Fran Humphries would throw the South Carolina judicial system in a crisis. Client and attorney conversations are protected by law and part of the foundation of fair trial and of innocent until proven guilty. South Carolina’s Supreme Court said that what Fran Humphries was accused of called into question ”the integrity of the entire judicial system.”

However, a controversial federal judge, U.S. District Judge Dennis Shedd, dismissed all charges against Fran Humphries, saying that the federal prosecutors failed to make their case. Fran Humphries didn’t even stand trial. He escaped being held to account for a crime that would undermine the judicial system and notion of a fair trial, a crime that at the very least should have had him disbarred from practicing law. In 2003 his former boss Lexington County Solicitor Donnie Myers received a private reprimand and a letter of caution. Fran Humphries had worked (as Deputy Solicitor) with prosecutor Donnie Myers who had 21 convictions reversed by higher courts.