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Awash in guns, saddled with ineffective laws and lacking enough shelters for victims of domestic abuse, South Carolina is among the nation's deadliest states for women, who are killed at a rate of one every 12 days. The series exposed numerous failings, including limited police training, inadequate laws, a lack of punishment, insufficient education for judges, a dearth of victim support, and traditional beliefs about the sanctity of marriage that keep victims locked in the cycle of abuse. These factors combine in a corrosive stew that, three times in the last decade, made South Carolina the No. 1 state in the rate of women killed by men.