A South Carolina judge has found that the firing squad and electric chair are prohibited by the state's constitution, a decision sure to be swiftly appealed as the state struggles to implement its new execution protocols.
Attorneys representing four condemned death row inmates, lawyers for the South Carolina Department of Corrections and Gov. Henry McMaster spent four days of trial debating whether the recently imposed death penalty statute violates the state constitution.
In May 2021, McMaster signed legislation that made the default method of execution the electric chair and added an additional option for the firing squad. This made South Carolina the only state with electrocution as the default method and the fourth state to implement the firing squad. A civil lawsuit was filed shortly after the legislation was signed and alleged that the electric chair and firing squad methods were cruel, unusual and corporal punishment and prohibited by the state Constitution.
When a motion to dismiss the lawsuit was denied in April 2022, the state Supreme Court ordered the trial be completed within 90 days. The order also virtually halted all state executions while the case was heard. Dr. Jonathan Arden, who formerly led the Washington D.C. Medical Examiner’s office, testified that the electric chair caused “effects on parts on the body, including internal organs, that is the equivalent of cooking.
Just three prisoners in South Carolina have chosen the electric chair since lethal injection was made available in 1995.
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