Tiffany Carroll: Parole, Self-Defense Ruling, and New Legislation

Tiffany Carroll was granted parole on November 19, 2025, after serving nearly six years of a 15-year sentence for fatally stabbing her abusive boyfriend in Greenwood, South Carolina. The South Carolina Parole Board voted 4-2 in her favor at her fourth hearing in four years, and she walked out of the Columbia women’s prison roughly six days later.¹²

The November 2025 Parole Decision

All six members of the South Carolina Parole Board were present for the November 19, 2025 hearing. Four voted to release Carroll; two, Reno Boyd and Chairwoman Mollie DuPriest Taylor, voted against. Both dissenters had also voted no at her previous hearing in September 2024.³

The release came with conditions. Carroll has to participate in a mental health program for as long as the board considers necessary, cannot contact the victim’s family, and must maintain employment and housing under a structured supervision plan.¹

Her prison record and reentry plan appear to have carried weight. She had no disciplinary issues during incarceration, worked in the prison laundry, completed work certificates, and took virtual college classes through Claflin University. Her supporters came to the hearing with confirmed housing with family and a verified job offer from a catering business called Granny Hands and Landis, with a backup offer from a Greenwood law office.³

Three Earlier Denials

Carroll first became parole-eligible in 2022, after completing 25 percent of her sentence under terms the sentencing judge allowed. She was denied three times, in 2022, 2023, and September 2024.⁴

The 2024 denial was the closest she had come. Three board members voted to grant parole, two voted against, and one was absent. South Carolina requires a two-thirds supermajority of the full board to parole someone convicted of a violent offense, so the 3-2 count fell a single vote short.⁴ A September 2025 hearing was continued for what officials described as attorney-client privilege around new information expected to help her case.¹

What Put Her In Prison

On September 18, 2017, Carroll, then 30 and a mother of five, fatally stabbed her boyfriend, 27-year-old William Jamaal Johnson, at their home on Independence Way in Greenwood. Johnson died at Self-Regional Healthcare at 6:32 p.m. from a stab wound to the chest.⁵

Carroll said she had been planning to leave Johnson that day. According to her later accounts, she was trying to get out with her children when Johnson dumped her suitcases and told her, “You’re not leaving me. I’ll kill you before you leave me.” He beat her and dragged her inside by her hair.¹ She told parole officials, “he leaped out at me and hit me again,” and said she did not remember what happened next. She grabbed a kitchen knife, cut Johnson on his arm and ankle, and stabbed him in the chest.² First responders found her trying to stop Johnson’s bleeding.⁶

The relationship had a long record of violence. Law enforcement responded to the home eight times between May 2016 and Johnson’s death. Carroll reported being slapped, insulted, and choked during pregnancy to the point of unconsciousness, and said Johnson physically attacked her children. Neighbors told investigators they had seen her shielding her child from blows and hiding bruises with makeup and sunglasses.⁷

She was initially charged with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.⁸ In December 2019, she pleaded guilty but mentally ill to voluntary manslaughter. Then-Circuit Judge Letitia Verdin, now on the South Carolina Supreme Court, sentenced her to 15 years but set parole eligibility at 25 percent of the sentence rather than the one-third standard for manslaughter. Verdin allowed Carroll to spend Christmas 2019 with her children before reporting to prison on December 26.⁹ A psychologist diagnosed Carroll with PTSD and major depressive disorder tied to what the evaluation called battered woman syndrome.⁷

Why Self-Defense Did Not Apply

A recurring question in the case has been why the abuse history did not produce a self-defense ruling. Eighth Circuit Solicitor David Stumbo, who prosecuted the case, wrote to the parole board in September 2024 that Johnson’s death “did not legally support a self-defense argument.” Prosecutors argued that the immediate physical threat had ended by the time Carroll picked up the knife. Greenwood County court spokesman Brian King put it plainly: “This was not a self-defense case.”⁷

Carroll’s defense argued her trauma history distorted her sense of danger. Her own early statements to police had shifted, first claiming she found Johnson already bleeding, then saying he had charged at her. Stumbo called the manslaughter plea “proper under the facts of the case.”⁹

Under South Carolina law, a guilty but mentally ill verdict applies when a defendant could tell right from wrong at the time of the offense but, because of a mental disease or defect, could not conform their conduct to the law. The sentence is the same as a standard guilty verdict, but the defendant must first be placed in a facility for mental health treatment before transfer to the general prison population.¹⁰

The Coalition That Pushed For Release

Carroll’s parole was backed by an unusual mix of supporters, including some of the officials involved in sending her to prison. An online petition gathered more than 30,000 signatures. Criminal attorney Rauch Wise said he had “never seen a case where this kind of support comes out for a defendant.”⁷

Republican State Representative John McCravy of Greenwood was one of Carroll’s most visible advocates and filed a formal pardon application on her behalf.¹¹³⁶

Life After Release

Carroll spent Thanksgiving 2025 with her aunt Brenda McCullough in Simpsonville, along with her five children, who range in age from 6 to 18. On December 1, roughly 60 people gathered at McCravy’s Greenwood law office for a welcome-home reception.² Moore, her attorney, said, “It’s probably the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done as a lawyer, honestly. Everybody wanted her out.”¹²

Carroll started work at Granny Hands and Landis on December 3, 2025, and worked on renewing her driver’s license and obtaining her birth certificate. McCravy set up a GoFundMe to help her secure stable housing.⁶ She said her immediate goal was to reunite all five of her children under one roof by summer 2026, and that she hoped to study business management at night, open a daycare, and start a nonprofit helping other incarcerated women petition for release.²

The Bill Her Case Inspired

Carroll’s case prompted proposed changes to South Carolina law. In December 2025, McCravy prefiled House Bill 4714, co-sponsored by Reps. Edgerton and Spann-Wilder. The bill was introduced in the House on January 13, 2026, and referred to the House Committee on Judiciary.¹³

The bill would amend Section 17-23-170 of the South Carolina Code to create a rebuttable presumption that a defendant diagnosed with battered spouse syndrome acted in self-defense, if two conditions are met: a documented history of prior violent assault by the victim, and a threat or actual assault by the victim within 24 hours of the alleged offense. It would also require courts to admit evidence of repeated physical and psychological abuse and expert testimony on battered spouse syndrome to explain the defendant’s state of mind, even if the defendant was the first aggressor, used excessive force, or failed to retreat.¹³ Under the framework prosecutors used against Carroll in 2017, the immediate threat had to be present at the moment of the act. The proposed law would shift the legal question to the broader 24-hour window and the documented abuse history.

1
WYFF4. South Carolina Convicted Woman Paroled
2
SC Daily Gazette. SC Mother Returns Home to Community, Family Support After 6 Years in Prison for Killing Her Abuser
3
News From the States. SC Mother Approved for Parole 8 Years After Fatally Stabbing Her Abuser
4
Fox Carolina. Greenwood Mother Who Killed Abuser Up for Parole Again
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WYFF4. Man Dies After Being Cut With Knife During Disturbance, Officers Say
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WYFF4. Greenwood Welcomes Tiffany Carroll Home
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The Post and Courier. Woman Who Killed Abusive Boyfriend Sparks SC’s Latest Call for Reform
8
WSPA. Greenwood Man Stabbed to Death in Domestic Dispute
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SC Daily Gazette. SC Mother Approved for Parole 8 Years After Fatally Stabbing Her Abuser
10
South Carolina Legislature. Title 17, Chapter 24 – Guilty but Mentally Ill
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The Post and Courier. SC Woman Serving 15 Years for Killing Abusive Boyfriend; Advocates Want Her Freed Early
12
Fox Carolina. Community Welcome Home for Upstate Mother Finally Granted Parole After Killing Abuser
13
South Carolina Legislature. H. 4714, 126th Session