Southern state gives green light to firing squad executions

COLUMBIA, S.C. – A southern state has given the green light to firing-squad executions. The method was codified into state law last year after a pause of more than 10 years in carrying out death sentences because of the state’s inability to procure lethal injection drugs.

The South Carolina state Corrections Department said Friday that renovations have been completed on the death chamber in Columbia. Hence, the agency notified Attorney General Alan Wilson that it was able to carry out a firing-squad execution, Fox News reported.

The state legislature tweaked the law to get around the lethal injection drug situation. New law that went into effect last year made the electric chair the state’s primary means of execution. However, inmates condemned to death are given the option of death by firing squad or lethal injection, if those methods are available.

State officials said the death chamber now 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 three shooters will fire their weapons.

The inmate will be afforded the opportunity to make a final comment before a hood is placed over the head of the condemned individual.

The executioners will be volunteers who are employees of the Corrections Department. All rifles will be loaded with live ammunition, and their weapons trained on the inmate’s heart.

The option was first introduced by Democratic state Sen. Dick Harpootlian — a prosecutor-turned-criminal-defense lawyer.

“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.”

Renovation cost the Corrections Department $53,600, Fox reported.

South Carolina is one of eight states to still use the electric chair and one of four to allow a firing squad, according to Washington-based nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.

In June, the South Carolina Supreme Court blocked the scheduled executions of two inmates by electrocution. The court ruled inmates could not be put to death until they have a choice of a firing squad option set out in the state’s newly revised law.

The electric chair used in Florida. (Florida Department of Corrections)

The high court halted the scheduled executions of Brad Sigmon and Freddie Owens. They said officials needed to develop a firing squad so that inmates could choose between that or the electric chair. The state’s plans, the court wrote in an unanimous order, were on hold “due to the statutory right of inmates to elect the manner of their execution.”

Now that a firing squad has been formed, the court will need to issue a new order for any execution to be carried out, Fox reported.

The last execution to occur in South Carolina took place in 2011. There are currently 37 men on the state’s death row.

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