South Carolina has given the greenlight to firing-squad executions, a method codified into state law last year after a decade-long pause in carrying out death sentences because of the state’s inability to procure lethal injection drugs.
The state Corrections Department said Friday that renovations have been completed on the death chamber in Columbia and that the agency had notified Attorney General Alan Wilson that it was able to carry out a firing-squad execution.
Lawmakers set about tweaking state law to get around the lethal injection drug situation. Legislation that went into effect in May made the electric chair the state’s primary means of execution while giving inmates the option of choosing death by firing squad or lethal injection, if those methods are available.
During South Carolina’s lengthy debate, Democratic state Sen. Dick Harpootlian — a prosecutor-turned-criminal defense lawyer — introduced the firing squad option. He argued that it presented “the least painful” execution method available.
“The death penalty is going to stay the law here for a while,” Harpootlian said. “If we’re going to have it, it ought to be humane.”
According to officials, the death chamber now also includes a metal chair, with restraints, in the corner of the room in which inmates will sit if they choose execution by firing squad. That chair faces a wall with a rectangular opening, 15 feet away, through which the three shooters will fire their weapons.
State officials also have created protocols for carrying out the executions. The three shooters, all volunteers who are employees of the Corrections Department, will have rifles loaded with live ammunition, with their weapons trained on the inmate’s heart.
A hood will be placed over the head of the inmate, who will be given the opportunity to make a last statement.
South Carolina is one of eight states to still use the electric chair and one of four to allow a firing squad, according to the Washington-based nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.
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✍️: AP
📸: Getty Images
Damn off my summer vacation list!
When the states kills its called justice.😏😒
Grandpappy told my pappy back in my day son a mans got to answer to the wicked that he’d done……..
Good, shame we don’t have it in the UK.
Why aim for the heart when there are people on the transplant list
OMG
Bringin’ back the old school. Respect.
What in the Teddy Roosevelt is this nonsense?
Light em up
Death penalty does not deter commission of crime.
SWEET !!!
I think the guillotine would less painful and more humane than some of the other forms of execution.
WHAT CENTURY IS THIS??!!
Wonder if the victims can watch execution?
Dystopian
😮
Hell yeah
That state is so primitive
Evangelical mentality
🚫Can you Report On The New York Times & New York post confirming Hunter Biden Laptop & the investigation of his business dealings in Ukraine 🇺🇦
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