TILL DEATH DO US PART

SC WAS NO. 1 IN THE RATE OF WOMEN KILLED BY MEN, WITH A TOLL MORE THAN DOUBLE THE US RATE.

Doug Pardue, Glenn Smith, Jennifer Berry Hawes and Natalie Caula spent nearly a year traveling the state and exploring why South Carolina had the nation’s worst rate of women killed by men. The resulting five-part series revealed that more than 300 women had been killed in domestic violence over a decade while state lawmakers did little to stem the bloodshed.

Reaction: The 2014 series sparked a sprawling discussion on domestic violence across South Carolina and led to then- Gov. Nikki Haley appointing a task force to combat it. Lawmakers enacted sweeping reforms to state laws that, among other things, increased penalties for offenders and barred abusers from keeping guns.

This year, for the first time since national researchers began tracking data in 1996, South Carolina no longer holds a top- 10 spot in the list of the worst states for women killed by men.

Awards: The series won numerous national honors, including a George Polk Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, journalism’s highest honor. A panel of seven judges from news media and academia called the newspaper’s work “riveting.”

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service: journalism’s highest honor