New law makes inmates choose electric chair or firing squad [View all]
Source: Associated Press
JEFFREY COLLINS,
Associated Press
May 17, 2021
Updated: May 17, 2021 5:48 p.m.
FILE - This March 2019, file photo, provided by the South Carolina Department of Corrections shows the state's electric chair in Columbia, S.C. South Carolina House members may soon debate whether to restart the state's stalled death penalty with the electric chair and whether to add a firing squad to the execution methods. The state's House Judiciary Committee approved a bill Tuesday, April 27, 2021, that would let condemned inmates choose death by being shot in the heart by several sharpshooters. (Kinard Lisbon/South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP, File)Kinard Lisbon/AP
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has signed into law a bill that forces death row inmates for now to choose between the electric chair or a newly formed firing squad in hopes the state can restart executions after an involuntary 10-year pause.
Two inmates who have exhausted their appeals immediately sued, saying they can't be electrocuted or shot since they were sentenced under a prior law that made lethal injection the default execution method.
South Carolina had been one of the most prolific states of its size in putting inmates to death. But a lack of lethal injection drugs brought executions to a halt.
McMaster signed the bill Friday with no ceremony or fanfare, according to the state Legislature's website. It's the first bill the governor decided to deal with after nearly 50 hit his desk Thursday.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/article/New-law-makes-inmates-choose-electric-chair-or-16182121.php
Gov. Henry McMaster, with former guy
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