The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the state can execute death row inmates by firing squad, lethal injection or the electric chair, paving the way for the resumption of executions for the first time in more than a decade.
All five justices agreed with at least parts of the ruling, but two of them said a firing squad is not a legal way to kill an inmate and one said he believes the electric chair is cruel and unusual punishment.
Twenty-seven states in the United States allow the death penalty, but only seven have carried out executions in the past three years, as lawyers and advocates debate issues of excessive pain, proper procedure and the legality of newer methods such as nitrogen asphyxiation and firing squads rarely used outside the military.
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“We begin by acknowledging the reality that there is simply no elegant way to kill someone,” Justice John Few wrote in the majority opinion.
Few wrote that South Carolina’s decision to allow inmates to choose from three execution methods is not an attempt to inflict pain, but a genuine attempt to make the death penalty less inhumane.
There may be up to eight inmates whose cases have been exhausted through the traditional appeals process. It is unclear when executions will resume or whether appeals will be pursued.
“We are currently evaluating next steps in our litigation and remain committed to advocating for the protection of our clients’ rights,” said Lindsay Vann, an attorney with the prisoner advocacy group Justice 360.
FILE – This undated photo provided by the South Carolina Department of Corrections shows the state’s execution chamber in Columbia, South Carolina, with the electric chair on the right and the firing squad chair on the left. Quincy Allen, 44, was released from death row on Monday, July 22, 2024, after agreeing to a life sentence after a federal court overturned his death sentence in 2005 for killing two people in South Carolina. (South Carolina Department of Corrections, via The Associated Press, File)
South Carolina Department of Corrections Commissioner Brian Sterling said if the state Supreme Court issues an execution order, the state could do so in one of three ways.
“The choice cannot be said to be cruel because death row inmates can choose to have the state use the method that they and their lawyers believe will be the least painful,” Few wrote.
South Carolina has executed 43 inmates since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976. Nearly all inmates have chosen lethal injection since execution became an option in 1995.
South Carolina has not carried out an execution since 2011. The state’s stock of lethal injection drugs has expired, and drug companies would not sell any more if they were publicly identified. The judges said a SHIELD law passed in 2023 allowed authorities to keep the source of their lethal injection drugs secret and to obtain the sedative pentobarbital in September, allowing the state to use one drug instead of three.
Lawmakers approved the state installing a firing squad in 2021 to give inmates a choice between a firing squad and an electric chair similar to one the state purchased in 1912. Inmates have sued, arguing that either option is cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Constitution.
Four of the five justices agreed that all three methods were not considered cruel under the state constitution. Justice John Kittridge said he would rule that the firing squad was unlawful because it was unusual. Although the firing squad had been available in South Carolina since statehood, it had never been used.
Chief Justice Don Beatty said both the electric chair and the firing squad were cruel. A firing squad would leave a bloody scene and there was no guarantee that the three executioners would aim accurately at the heart, he said. The electric chair is now rarely used because of the pain and disfigurement involved. “The inmate is engulfed in flames, suffers extensive burns and bleeds out before dying,” Beatty said.
Beatty likened the electric chair to burning someone at the stake.
“In my view, the only difference is that the means of ignition has been ‘modernized’ in the last century from matches to electric current. The end result of the process remains the same in every sense,” Beatty writes.
The judges said prison wardens must still provide evidence that the lethal injection drugs are stable and mixed correctly. Inmates can sue if they disagree with their sentences, and the court promised a swift decision.
South Carolina has 32 inmates on death row. Four are currently in litigation, and four more have expired appeals, according to Justice 360. Two of those inmates are scheduled to have competency hearings before they can be executed, however.
Gov. Henry McMaster said the judges interpreted the law correctly. “Today’s ruling marks another step toward ensuring that justice is served and that the victims’ families and loved ones receive the closure and justice they have long sought,” he said in a statement.
In arguments before the state Supreme Court in February, the state said lethal injection, electrocution and shooting all fit under the existing death penalty. “No court has held that the death penalty must be instantaneous or painless,” Grayson Lambert, an attorney for the governor’s office, wrote.
South Carolina historically averaged three executions a year and had more than 60 inmates on death row when the last one was carried out in 2011. Since then, the number has fallen to 32 as a result of successful appeals and inmates dying of natural causes.
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Prosecutors have sent just three new inmates to death row in the past 13 years, and faced with rising costs, shortages of lethal injection drugs and stronger defenses, they are opting to accept guilty pleas and life without parole even in cases of murder convicts who were originally sentenced to death by juries.
