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Thread: South Carolina Capital Punishment News

  1. #181
    Senior Member CnCP Addict one_two_bomb's Avatar
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    I think even if the chair and firing squad are upheld, the inmates could claim they want their spiritual advisor to be able to touch them, and the only legal method that allows that is lethal injection.

  2. #182
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    SC senators advance bill to resume executions by ‘shielding’ drug suppliers

    Legislation that would enable executions to resume by lethal injection is advancing in the S.C. Senate as lawmakers await a ruling on whether death by firing squad or electrocution is constitutional.

    The so-called “shield law” sent Jan. 19 to the full Senate Corrections Committee would keep secret how the state prison agency secures the drugs needed to execute death row inmates by injection.

    State law already protects the identities of employees carrying out executions. The bill would extend the secrecy shield to those making, compounding and/or selling the drugs used in the lethal cocktail.

    The assumption is that promising companies and pharmacists a buffer from public opposition to the death penalty will help the Department of Corrections restock supplies that expired a decade ago.

    Corrections Director Bryan Stirling cautioned senators that the secrecy shield still does not guarantee he’ll be able to buy the drugs. But all efforts to secure the drugs without one have failed, he said.

    “Everybody said ‘no, we can’t sell you the drugs. You don’t have a shield law,’” he said about failed attempts since 2013.

    In other states with such a law, some “have been able to get the drugs. Some states have not,” he said. “I think it comes down to, do you have a compounding pharmacy willing to sell you the drugs? In some states they do, some states they don’t. Right now, we have to tell them, ‘We can’t protect you.’”

    There are 35 men on South Carolina’s list of condemned inmates: 18 White and 17 Black. The last execution was in 2011 by lethal injection.

    Opponents of the bill said it’s bad policy to exempt government contracts of any kind from public scrutiny.

    Allie Menegakis, founder of South Carolina for Criminal Justice Reform, argued it’s a slippery slope that leads to corruption.

    Asked how this particular exemption from public records laws could cause malfeasance, she said, “I have no idea what could potentially happen, and the problem is no one has any idea. We’re talking about how someone’s actually killed by the government.

    Where this drug comes from, whether it’s safe, you and everyone else here will have no access.”

    The Rev. Hillary Taylor, director of South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, called it a “bad bill for business and economic freedom,” citing pharmaceutical companies’ statements of not wanting their drugs to be used to kill people.

    “It also threatens public health,” said Taylor, who’s also a hospital chaplain. “If these drugs were to get out to the public, it would create an opioid crisis.”

    South Carolina’s inability to execute by lethal injection caused legislators two years ago to pass a law that reverted to electrocution as the default method and added the option of death by firing squad. The state Supreme Court temporarily put two executions on hold until the Corrections Department made the firing squad a real option.

    Attorneys for those 2 inmates and 2 others who have exhausted their normal appeals then challenged the constitutionality of death by electrocution and the firing squad, arguing both violate bans against “cruel and unusual punishment.” A Richland County judge agreed in September, halting all executions.

    The state Supreme Court heard arguments on the appeal earlier this month.

    Sen. Greg Hembree, who led the Senate panel that advanced the bill, said he would think inmates sentenced to die would want the option of lethal injection even if the state’s high court upholds executions by the electric chair and firing squad. The 2021 state law says death by lethal injection is still an option when the drugs become available.

    “And the only way we’ll be able to offer that option” is with a shield law, said the Little River Republican, a former solicitor.

    To the bill’s opponents, he said, “if the goal of fighting this bill is to fight the death penalty, you’ve already lost that fight.”

    Previous attempts to pass a shield law in South Carolina were successfully scuttled by death penalty opponents, who in their latest court challenges question why the prison agency can’t secure the drugs for lethal injection as other states have done.

    Laura Hudson, director of the Crime Victims’ Council, said the families she advocates for are offended by the whole argument, since the victims killed by death row inmates had no choice in how they died.

    “Would someone prefer to not be raped or murdered, or would they prefer to have been shot rather than stabbed? No crime victim had a choice,” said Hudson, who’s advocated for crime victims for 40 years.

    She proceeded to read a list of the inmates on South Carolina’s death row, along with their crimes and when they occurred, noting the oldest conviction was 1983.

    Hudson faulted a “seemingly never-ending quagmire of convoluted legal games called the criminal injustice system” that she said gives more justice to the killers than the victims, adding that she supports the bill.

    “No crime victim wants the wrong person convicted, of course,” she continued. But “I am sick and tired of all the gamesmanship.”

    (source: postandcourier.com)
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #183
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    SC Supreme Court remands death penalty order, calls for discovery into lethal injection

    The South Carolina Supreme Court remanded part of a trial judge's order challenging the constitutionality of the state's firing squad and electrocution execution methods on Thursday.

    The court reversed the circuit court's ruling on the discovery process that initially barred attorneys defending four condemned men on death row from inquiring about the South Carolina Department of Correction's efforts to obtain drugs for lethal injection. The court remanded the issue back to the trial court to have further proceedings to gather information on the department's efforts to procure the drugs.

    "We will hold the remainder of the appeal in abeyance pending the circuit court's resolution of the discovery issue," the order read.

    https://www.greenvilleonline.com/sto...n/69845877007/
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  4. #184
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Women who seek abortion in South Carolina could face death penalty

    By Courtney Rowles
    wpde.com

    A new bill introduced in the South Carolina Statehouse could put the death penalty on the table for women who get an abortion.

    House Bill 3549 is an amendment to the South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act of 2023 and would define "person" to include an unborn child at any stage of development. This would ensure that an unborn child who is a "victim of homicide" or "victim of assault" is given the same protections under state laws -- including, up to the death penalty.

    On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States conservative majority ruled to end constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place for nearly 50 years, best known as Roe v. Wade.

    Since then, several state groups, both pro-life and pro-choice, have expressed their support and opposition, respectively, to the decision.

    Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, state lawmakers passed a Fetal Heartbeat Bill, which banned abortions after a heartbeat was detected. But, in January, the South Carolina Supreme Court blocked the abortion ban, deciding that it limited a woman's right to privacy and violated the state's constitution.

    "We hold that the decision to terminate a pregnancy rests upon the utmost personal and private considerations imaginable, and implicates a woman's right to privacy. While this right is not absolute, and must be balanced against the State's interest in protecting unborn life, this Act, which severely limits—and in many instances completely forecloses—abortion, is an unreasonable restriction upon a woman's right to privacy and is therefore unconstitutional."

    The court also said the six-week timeframe was "not a reasonable period of time" for women to determine if they are pregnant and take steps to terminate the pregnancy.

    South Carolina's Governor and Attorney General wrote a letter asking the court to revisit its decision, but the Supreme Court declined to re-hear the case.

    In this year's legislative session, several new bills have been introduced that attempt to again tackle the topic.

    https://wpde.com/amp/news/local/abor...makers-2-22-23
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  5. #185
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    The SC Senate has passed a drug secrecy law today by a vote of 39-5.

    https://www.scstatehouse.gov/votehistory.php?KEY=22117
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

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  6. #186
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    South Carolina gets closer to lethal injection secrecy

    By JEFFREY COLLINS
    The Associated Press

    After an unintended 12-year moratorium on the death penalty in South Carolina, the state House gave key approval Wednesday to allow the name of any company that sells lethal injection drugs to remain secret, as well as members of the execution team.

    A shield law has already passed the Senate, and if the two bodies can work out their minor differences, the proposal will head to the desk of Gov. Henry McMaster, who has been adamant about restarting executions with several inmates having reached the end of their appeals.

    Supporters said the bill isn't about a debate on whether the death penalty is moral.

    “The Department of Corrections has been unable to carry out lawfully imposed sentences. The families of the victims cannot get closure,” Republican Rep. Weston Newton said.

    Opponents said hiding any part of the state-sponsored death of an inmate is wrong.

    “We want to be able to throw the rock and hide our heads,” Democratic Rep. Jermaine Johnson said.

    Rep. Will Wheeler said South Carolina is willing to set aside principles to resume executions.

    “Don’t tell us about it. We don’t want to know about it," Wheeler said. “Just bring out a dead body.”

    Sixteen states have carried out nearly 100 lethal injection executions in the past six years. Many have shield laws. Some do not.

    For several years, South Carolina has tried to find a way to carry out executions after the state's supply of lethal injection drugs expired and they could not find a pharmacy willing to sell them more.

    Two years ago, the General Assembly passed a law creating a firing squad and giving inmates a choice between dying by bullets to the heart or in the state’s electric chair, which was first used to kill an inmate in 1913.

    That law is on hold as a court considers a challenge by death row inmates who say both the firing squad and electric chair are constitutionally prohibited cruel and unusual punishments.

    South Carolina currently has 34 inmates on death row. At the end of 2011 after the last execution took place, the state had 52 death row inmates. Only three prisoners have been sent to death row during that time. Several prosecutors said they are less likely to seek the ultimate punishment without assurance the state can carry it out. The rest have left death row either through sentences reduced by appeal or natural deaths.

    The bill that got key approval on a 75-21 House vote Wednesday adds criminal punishment and a possible prison sentence of up to three years for anyone who releases information that is supposed to be kept secret. It also bans any legislator or their families or businesses from providing any drugs or equipment needed for executions.

    Those and other small differences will need to be worked out with senators, who said they thought those would not be high hurdles.

    Along with hiding the name of the sellers of drugs from the public and from state accountants, the bill also keeps the names and normal jobs of the members of the execution team from the public.

    The bill also requires the state Department of Corrections to share autopsy results from inmates killed by lethal injection with their attorneys.

    The drugs bought by prison officials must be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The qualifications of any medical professionals involved in the execution would be published and they must be fully licensed and certified.

    Democratic Rep. Justin Bamberg said the shield law isn't needed because South Carolina could wait and see if the courts find the firing squad legal. Or it could find a different way to handle lethal injection.

    “This is the complete opposite of honesty so we can find an expedient solution to a seemingly insurmountable problem that does have a solution,” Bamberg said. “We just haven't done the work to find it.”

    https://www.myplainview.com/news/art...n-17906828.php
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  7. #187
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
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    South Carolina just passed SB120, the Lethal Injection Secrecy Bill, with a vote of 32-6 in the State Senate. The bill now goes to the Governor's desk.

    https://www.scstatehouse.gov/billsearch.php

  8. #188
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Governor McMaster has signed into law Bill 120, which grants anonymity to suppliers of lethal injection drugs.

    https://www.scstatehouse.gov/billsea...illnumbers=120
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  9. #189
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
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    South Carolina Now Prepared To Carry Out Death Penalty By Lethal Injection

    By Jack Hale
    WCCB Charlotte

    COLUMBIA, S.C. – Governor Henry McMaster and the S.C. Department of Corrections informed the S.C. Supreme Court today that the department is now prepared to carry out executions by lethal injection.

    “Justice has been delayed for too long in South Carolina,” said Governor Henry McMaster. “This filing brings our state one step closer to being able to once again carry out the rule of law and bring grieving families and loved ones the closure they are rightfully owed.”

    Since taking office in 2017, Gov. McMaster has been calling on the General Assembly to pass a Shield Statute, echoing points S.C. Department of Corrections Director Bryan Stirling has made throughout his tenure at SCDC.

    The S.C. General Assembly passed legislation this year to enact the Shield Statute, which protects, among other things, the identity of individuals or entities involved in the planning or execution of a death sentence. After Gov. Henry McMaster signed the Shield Statute into law on May 12, the department continued its previous efforts to secure the drugs with the new shield provision.

    In doing so, SCDC made more than 1,300 contacts in search of lethal injection drugs. Those inquiries included drug manufacturers, suppliers, compounding pharmacies, and other potential sources.

    As a result of those efforts and the Shield Statute, SCDC was able to secure pentobarbital for carrying out an execution by lethal injection under a one-drug protocol.

    The department’s lethal injection policy has been revised to provide for the use of a one-drug protocol. The new protocol is essentially identical to protocols used by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and at least six other states. Courts have upheld the use of this drug against constitutional challenges.

    South Carolina law specifies the electric chair as the default method of execution while giving inmates the option of choosing death by firing squad or lethal injection if those methods are available. All three methods outlined in law are now available to carry out a death sentence.

    https://www.wccbcharlotte.com/2023/0...hal-injection/

  10. #190
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Fact's Avatar
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    Prediction: The judge who enjoined the previous scheduled executions will enjoin any scheduled execution on the same grounds. The South Carolina Supreme Court gave her the green light to do this by punting on the cruel and unusual issue.

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