The South Carolina Supreme Court Wednesday upheld the constitutionality of the state's three methods of carrying out the death penalty.The challenge came from f
The South Carolina Supreme Court Wednesday upheld the constitutionality of the state's three methods of carrying out the death penalty .
In a majority opinion written by Justice John Cannon Few, the court upheld the state's use of firing squad, lethal injection, or electrocution.As written in the opinion, for most of South Carolina's history, hanging was the method of choice for the majority of executions. The state adopted electrocution in 1912 as they joined a national trend of aiming for a less inhumane manner of execution.
This led to the General Assembly amending section 24-3-530 yet again in 2021 to permit inmates condemned to death a choice between three alternative methods of execution. They added, "A person convicted of a capital crime and having imposed upon him the sentence of death shall suffer the penalty by electrocution or, at the election of the convicted person, by firing squad or lethal injection, if it is available at the time of election . . . ." S.C. Code Ann. 24-3-530 .
This led to the court entering a stay of execution and told the clerk to not issue another execution notice until the Department of Corrections has developed appropriate protocols to carry out execution by firing squad. The General Assembly then enacted a "shield statute" which was signed by Governor McMaster which amended the code to forbid the disclosure of any information regarding the acquisition of drugs needed to carry out lethal injections.The state notified the court a few months later it was able to procure the drugs needed to carry out lethal injections again.
The court also ruled choice cannot be considered "unusual" because "unusual punishment" was not intended to block innovation and efforts to make execution more humane. The opinion states a condemned inmate in South Carolina will never be executed by a method they contend to be more inhumane than another available method.
Lethal Injection Electrocution Firing Squad South Carolina Supreme Court Constitutionality Section 24-3-530 Inmates
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