THIS OPINION HAS NO PRECEDENTIAL VALUE. IT SHOULD NOT BE 

CITED OR RELIED ON AS PRECEDENT IN ANY PROCEEDING 

EXCEPT AS PROVIDED BY RULE 268(d)(2), SCACR. 

THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

In The Supreme Court 

The State, Respondent, 

v. 

Ricky Dale Pace, Appellant. 

Appellate Case No. 2014-001106 

Appeal From Laurens County 

Eugene C. Griffith, Jr., Circuit Court Judge 

Memorandum Opinion No. 2016-MO-010 

Heard March 23, 2016 – Filed April 13, 2016 

AFFIRMED 

Chief Appellate Defender Robert Michael Dudek and 

Appellate Defender Lara Mary Caudy, both of Columbia, 

for Appellant. 

Attorney General Alan McCrory Wilson, Senior 

Assistant Deputy Attorney General Deborah R.J. Shupe, 

both of Columbia; and Solicitor David Matthew Stumbo, 

of Greenwood, for Respondent. 
 

PER CURIAM: Ricky Dale Pace appeals his convictions for two counts of 

committing a lewd act upon a child.1

 Pace makes three arguments that the trial 

court's admission of a videotape of the victim's forensic interview pursuant to 

section 17-23-175 of the South Carolina Code (2015) violated his rights under the 

Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment.2 Pace also argues this Court 

should hold a trial court must make a specific finding of necessity before admitting 

a forensic interview videotape into evidence. 

We find the trial court's admission of the videotape did not violate Pace's rights 

under the Confrontation Clause and the trial court did not need to make a specific 

finding of necessity before admitting the videotape into evidence. See S.C. Code 

Ann. § 17-23-175 (2015) ("(A) In a general sessions court proceeding . . . , an outof-court statement of a child is admissible if: (1) the statement was given in 

response to questioning conducted during an investigative interview of the child; 

(2) an audio and visual recording of the statement is preserved on film, videotape, 

or other electronic means . . . ; (3) the child testifies at the proceeding and is 

subject to cross-examination on the elements of the offense and the making of the 

out-of-court statement; and (4) the court finds, in a hearing conducted outside the 

presence of the jury, that the totality of the circumstances surrounding the making 

of the statement provides particularized guarantees of trustworthiness."); State v. 

Anderson, 413 S.C. 212, 217-18, 776 S.E.2d 76, 79 (2015) (holding when a 

1

 Pace committed these crimes in January and February 2011. At that time, the 

crime of lewd act upon a child was codified at section 16-15-140 of the South 

Carolina Code (2003) (repealed 2012). The same conduct is now classified as 

criminal sexual conduct with a minor in the third degree. S.C. Code Ann. § 16-3-

655(C) (2015). 

2

 Specifically, Pace argues (1) section 17-23-175 is inconsistent with the 

Confrontation Clause under Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004), because 

it allows the admission of an out-of-court statement even though the witness is 

available at trial and the defendant did not have a prior opportunity to crossexamine the witness; (2) the particularized guarantees of trustworthiness required 

by South Carolina Code subsection 17-23-175(A)(4) (2015) are not adequate to 

protect the defendant's right of confrontation because the reliability of the victim's 

statement must be determined by contemporaneous cross-examination; and (3) section 

17-23-175 is inconsistent with the Confrontation Clause under Maryland v. Craig, 

497 U.S. 836 (1990), because it does not require the victim to be under oath and 

subject to contemporaneous cross-examination during the forensic interview. 
videotaped forensic interview is admitted into evidence pursuant to section 17-23-

175, a defendant's "right to the opportunity for effective cross-examination" of the 

child is satisfied during the child's "actual trial testimony"); 413 S.C. at 217-18, 

776 S.E.2d at 78-79 (stating the child's testimony "under oath in open court" and 

the defendant's cross-examination of the child "is all the Confrontation Clause 

requires"). 

AFFIRMED. 

PLEICONES, C.J., BEATTY, KITTREDGE, HEARN and FEW, JJ., concur.