By Brooke Mallory, OAN Staff
Wednesday, July 31, 2024 4:06 PM
The state’s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that South Carolina can resume executing death row inmates by lethal injection, firing squad or electric chair, allowing the state to resume executions for the first time in more than a decade.
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Five justices agreed with parts of the ruling, but two justices expressed their belief that the electric chair was an unusually harsh punishment and that the firing squad was an “illegal” means of killing a prisoner.
In his majority decision, Justice John Few argued that the state’s decision to allow prisoners to choose between three methods of execution was not an attempt to deliberately inflict further suffering, but rather a sincere attempt to reduce the “inhumanity” of the death penalty.
“The choice cannot be said to be cruel because a death row inmate can choose for the state to use the method that he and his lawyers believe will be the least painful.” A few people said.
It is unclear whether lawyers representing the death row inmates can appeal the sentence or when executions might resume.
“This decision is another step towards ensuring that justice is properly served and that the victims’ families and loved ones receive the closure and justice they have long sought,” said Governor Henry McMaster of Lausanne.
Lawyers for the death row prisoners told the judges they needed to review the 94-page judgment before making any comment.
The sentence came in response to legal arguments by lawyers for death row inmates who argued that the use of firing squads or the electric chair is inhumane.
South Carolina has executed 43 inmates since the US reinstated the death penalty in 1976, almost all of whom chose lethal injection, and there have been no executions in South Carolina since 2011.
South Carolina news outlets have reported that the state’s supply of drugs used in lethal injections has expired or “run out,” and anonymous sources within the prison system have alleged that pharmaceutical companies that originally supplied those drugs feel they would lose money if their companies were made public.
Faced with rising costs, a shortage of lethal injection drugs, and a strong defense, offenders are choosing to accept guilty pleas and life sentences without the possibility of release.
There are currently 32 inmates on death row in South Carolina. Four are currently in court, four have completed their appeals and two need to undergo competency evaluations before they can be executed, according to the prisoner advocacy group Justice 360. PBS report.
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