Judge Hayes, who vacated convictions of Rock Hill Friendship Nine protesters, has died

Retired South Carolina Judge John C. Hayes III, who served on the bench in York County and across the state for more than a quarter century, died Friday, according to his family and York County Coroner Sabrina Gast.

Hayes was 77.

Hayes gained national attention in 2015 when he vacated the convictions of the Rock Hill Friendship Nine civil rights protesters.

“John Hayes was simply a great man,” York County Clerk of Court David Hamilton said Friday.

Flags outside the Moss Justice Center and at the historic York County Courthouse, both in the city of York, S.C., will be lowered to half-mast to honor the memory of Hayes.

Hayes was a South Carolina Circuit Court judge for 26 years. He served as an active judge from 1991 until mandatory retirement at age 72 in 2017. Judges must retire at age 72 under South Carolina state law. He continued to sit on the bench for some cases as a retired judge after his official retirement.

Current Judge William McKinnon said Friday that he remains honored to sit on the bench once presided upon by Hayes.

“This is an enormous loss to the York County legal community,” McKinnon said. “I am honored to have succeeded Judge Hayes on his retirement. My hope is to live up to the standard he set as a judge. We will all miss him terribly.”

York County’s other resident judge, Dan Hall, said Hayes was a mentor to other judges and his service to the community will always be remembered.

“I was saddened to hear of Judge Hayes passing this morning,” Hall said. “As a fellow judge, he mentored and encouraged me for the past nine years with his sharp intellect, integrity and wise counsel. We can be grateful that Judge John Calvin Hayes III spent his life serving this community and our state as an attorney, legislator and judge.”

The case of the Friendship Nine

In 2015, Hayes vacated the 1961 convictions of the Rock Hill Friendship Nine.

The protesters, all Black, had been sentenced by Hayes’ uncle -- Rock Hill city judge Billy Hayes -- in 1961 to 30 days hard labor after being convicted of trespassing. The protesters staged a sit-in at what then was a “whites-only” lunch counter in Rock Hill.

On that historic 2015 day, Hayes said for the court record and in front of the national media that he was proud to be the judge who vacated those wrongful convictions. Hayes said the court could vacate the convictions of South Carolina law and customs from the era of segregation and Jim Crow that discriminated against African-Americans and all people of color.

“We cannot rewrite history, but we can right history,” Hayes said that day as the courtroom broke into applause.

Hayes ruling was covered by media across the country, including CNN, NBC, the New York Times, NPR, and other national and international reports.

Hayes told The Herald in 2015 that he was very proud to have played a part in righting that wrong.

“The order was heartfelt, and I believe on solid legal grounds,” Hayes said. “These individuals were exonerated. I genuinely believe they were not guilty of anything and were prosecuted because of the color of their skin. It was a correction of a wrong. So the proceeding was not symbolic – it was very real.”

Family: Judge Hayes loved Rock Hill, South Carolina, and its people

Hayes was a Rock Hill native who served as a lawyer, legislator, and judge. He also was a military veteran.

“John was honored to serve his state and country as an Army Reservist, a lawyer, legislator and Judge,” his wife, Sarah Lynn Hayes, said in a statement to The Herald on Friday. “Even with all his professional accomplishments, John loved his role as husband, father and ‘Pop Pop’ more than anything. He will be remembered for how effortlessly he combined wisdom with warmth and wit and how he showed kindness to all.”

One of Hayes’ children, John C. Hayes IV, who practices law in Charleston, told The Herald Friday that his father believed in being kind to everyone.

“My father spent almost his whole life in York County and never wanted to be anywhere else,” John Hayes IV said. “With all that he did, he believed that as a judge, he had found his calling.”

Judge Hayes was always extremely proud he served for the 16th Judicial Circuit in his home county of York, his son said. The 16th Judicial Circuit is made up of York and neighboring Union counties.

“He was a lot of things to a lot of people,” his son said. “He loved the people. He was one of them his whole life.”

Hayes honored with courtroom portrait

In January 2023, a portrait of Hayes was unveiled during a ceremony in the courtroom where he presided at the Moss Justice Center.

Hayes told a courtroom packed with lawyers, judges and others that day hat he was proud to be a judge and run a courtroom where matters could be settled without bloodshed or fights.

“The courtroom is where people settle disputes without fisticuffs or pistols,” Hayes said.

“Firm but fair”

Hayes had a reputation for being fair but tough on sentencing of criminal defendants who were guilty.

Former York County prosecutor and S.C. Rep. Tommy Pope, R-York, now one of South Carolina’s top politicians in the S.C. General Assembly, said at the January ceremony that Hayes had a reputation for tough sentences but was always fair.

Hayes said at the January ceremony the toughest part of being a judge was sentencing criminal defendants. Some deserved mercy, while others did not.

“You have to distinguish between the misguided and the truly evil,” Hayes said.

During his years as a judge, Hayes presided over the York County trials that were national in scope. He was the trial judge for the double murder death penalty case of James Robertson, who was convicted in 1999 of killing his parents.

Hayes also was the judge in the trials of Billy Wayne Cope and James Sanders who were convicted in 2004 of child rape and murder.

People who practiced and appeared before Hayes during his quarter-century as a judge said Hayes was an intellect without peer.

“Judge Hayes was calm and deliberate,” former York County Public Defender Harry Dest said at the January ceremony. Dest was public defender for almost three decades and appeared before Hayes in hundreds of cases. “He was wise, fair, and smart. He made an enormous impact on the judiciary of South Carolina.”

Sixteenth Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett said in January that Hayes cared about the community he served and the people in it.

“John Hayes furthered the cause of truth, justice, and humanity,” Brackett said.

Hayes served in the S.C. General Assembly for 11 years before he was elected judge in 1991.

Hayes, a lawyer from 1971 until elected judge in 1991, also was a character in his own right: He once was an actor in a television movie. Hayes had a cameo appearance as a state trooper in the 1983 TV miniseries ‘Chiefs’, which was shot in nearby Chester, S.C.

A celebration of life service is set for April 16 at 3 p.m. at McBryde Hall on the Winthrop University campus in Rock Hill, S.C. The family will receive friends after the service.