OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
4:06 PM – Wednesday, July 31, 2024
The state’s highest court decided on Wednesday that South Carolina could resume executions of death row convicts by lethal injection, firing squad, or electric chair. This decision allowed the state to resume executions after more than 10 years.
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Part of the decision was agreed upon by the five justices. However, two justices stated that they believed the electric chair to be an unusually harsh form of punishment and that the firing squad was an “illegal” method of killing an inmate.
Justice John Few argued in the majority ruling that the state’s decision to let prisoners select from among the three methods of execution is a sincere attempt to lessen the “inhumane nature” of the death penalty rather than a deliberate intention to cause more suffering.
“Choice cannot be considered cruel because the condemned inmate may elect to have the State employ the method he and his lawyers believe will cause him the least pain,” Few stated.
Eight current prisoners might not be eligible for standard appeals. It’s unclear whether attorneys representing death row convicts can appeal the decision or when executions would resume.
“This decision is another step in ensuring that lawful sentences can be duly enforced and the families and loved ones of the victims receive the closure and justice they have long awaited,” according to Governor Henry McMaster.
Before making any comments, the death row convicts’ attorneys stated they were studying the 94-page decision.
This ruling was made in response to legal claims made by death row inmates’ attorneys that the firing squad and the electric chair are unusually harsh forms of punishment.
Since the United States reinstated the death penalty in 1976, South Carolina has carried out 43 executions of prisoners. Almost every prisoner has selected a lethal injection. Furthermore, not one execution has taken place in South Carolina since 2011.
The state’s supply of pharmaceuticals used in deadly injections reportedly expired or “became scarce,” and anonymous insiders within the prison system claim that pharmaceutical companies who had provided these drugs now feel that they will lose money if their companies or brands are ever revealed to the public.
In the face of growing expenses, an absence of medications for lethal injection, and stronger defenses, criminals are opting to accept guilty pleas and life sentences without the possibility of release.
There are 32 prisoners currently in South Carolina on death row. According to Justice 360, an organization that advocates for prisoners, four of the inmates are suing, another four have exhausted their appeals, and two must appear for a competence review before they can be put to death, PBS reported.
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