The trip will be short as the former Democratic Maryland governor is scheduled to arrive in Columbia midday and will head directly to the State House. O'Malley plans to pay his respects to the senator, who was shot and killed along with eight others in the Charleston church massacre last week, and fly out after an hour.

A group of state senators and representatives will accompany a horse-drawn caisson carrying the body of Pinckney through Columbia as they walk down Main Street to the capitol. Senator Pinckney will lie in state from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m.

On a previous trip to South Carolina, an early presidential nominating state, O’Malley paid a visit to the Charleston church. Pinckney pulled together a group of clergy and community leaders to meet with O’Malley in the basement of the church and gave him a tour, according to one of O’Malley’s associates.