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Thread: South Carolina Capital Punishment News

  1. #71
    Senior Member Member FLMetfan's Avatar
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    with the shift to the left in this country, finally some good news for victims and their families.
    "I am the warden! Get your warden off this gurney and shut up! You are not in America. This is the island of Barbados. People will see you doing this." Monty Delk's last words.

  2. #72
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Neil's Avatar
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    South Carolina could use electric chair for executions if bills in House, Senate pass

    Two bills moving forward in the state General Assembly that would bring back the electric chair could speed up the long-delayed execution of death row inmate Richard Bernard Moore, who was convicted in the 1999 killing of a Spartanburg County convenience store clerk, an Upstate legislator said Thursday. State Sen. Josh Kimbrell, R-Spartanburg, is co-sponsor of a Senate bill that would require death by electrocution when lethal drugs are unavailable. The bill was introduced by Sens. Shane Martin of Pauline and Greg Hembree of Myrtle Beach. Earlier this week, the Martin-chaired Senate Committee on Corrections and Penology voted in favor of the bill in an informal vote. Kimbrell and Martin both are members of that committee.

    If the full committee approves, the bill would go to the full Senate for debate and a potential vote, Kimbrell said Thursday.The bill mirrors one in the SC House that also gives death row inmates the option of being executed by electrocution or lethal injection, and that if lethal drugs are not available, the method of death would have to be the electric chair.

    The House Judiciary Committee earlier this week moved forward its bill to the floor for debate.

    "Nobody's excited about (the bills)," Kimbrell said. "Let's be honest. We don't want to have to do it."

    Martin said Thursday previous attempts by his committee to move forward an electric chair bill failed because the House did not put forth similar legislation. This year, both the Senate and House are on the same page, he said.

    He added that if it becomes law, it would affect everyone on death row.

    Moore's attorney Lindsey Vann said Thursday that Moore remains on death row, and there have been no updates since his execution was postponed. In an emailed response, she declined to comment on how passage of the electric chair bills would affect Moore's case. Moore declined to choose whether to die by electric chair or lethal injection. Therefore, prison officials said Moore must be executed by lethal injection by default.

    Kimbrell said if the electric chair is made the default and there are not court challenges to the bill the state would be able to move forward on executions because it already has an electric chair.

    Lack of lethal drugs

    The bill was prompted by the state's inability to obtain the lethal drugs needed for executions. The state has not had an execution by lethal injection in nearly 10 years. Drug companies have stopped supplying South Carolina lethal drugs without immunity because they fear retribution, former Republican state Rep. Eddie Tallon of Spartanburg has said previously. Shield legislation for drug companies that he previously proposed never passed.

    Some Democrats criticized Republican supporters of the electric chair of hypocrisy for being "pro-death" while recently passing a "pro-life" heartbeat abortion ban bill.

    "If lawmakers are intent on being pro-life then pro-life means not only protecting a fetus, it also means not ending someone’s life," said Rep. Rosalyn Henderson-Myers, D-Spartanburg. "There is just no way to justify both."

    Kimbrell said he believes the bills have enough support in both Republican-majority chambers to be passed and sent on to Republican Gov. Henry McMaster to be signed into law. Richard Moore has spent nearly two decades on death row
    Moore, 55, has been on death row for nearly two decades since being convicted in the 1999 killing of a convenience store in Spartanburg County.


    He is among 37 death row inmates and would have been the first person put to death in nearly a decade.

    He was scheduled to die by lethal injection Dec. 4, but his execution was delayed indefinitely due to a lack of lethal drugs.

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.gou...amp/6803759002
    Last edited by Neil; 02-26-2021 at 10:02 AM.

  3. #73
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    They currently have 4 inmates with pending appeals before the 4th Circuit Court. 3 have been denied by the 4th Circuit. Another 4 inmates have been denied by the federal district court. If this passes, they will execute about 11 inmates or even more in the next 3-4 years.

  4. #74
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Neil's Avatar
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    Out of all the DP governors I think McMaster is going to be higher than DeSantis or Lee. I don’t know if he’ll be higher than Parsons. Missouri’s also gearing up for a 2014 wave year. Most of their inmates are at the eighth circuit and they are very hostile against DP inmates.

  5. #75
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Neil's Avatar
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    South Carolina Senate adds firing squad to execution methods

    COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina senators Tuesday added a firing squad to the electric chair as alternatives if the state can't kill condemned inmates with lethal injection.

    The Senate then approved the bill on a key 32-11 vote with several Democrats joining Republicans in the proposal which would allow South Carolina to restart executions after nearly 10 years.

    The state can't put anyone to death now because its supply of lethal injection drugs expired and it has not been able to buy any more. Currently, inmates can choose between the electric chair and lethal injection and since the drugs are not available, they pick the method that can't be done.

    The Senate bill keeps lethal injection if the state has the drugs, but requires prison officials to use the electric chair if it is not. An inmate could choose a firing squad if they prefer. The House is considering a similar bill without the firing squad option, but it could also consider the Senate version after a procedural vote by senators finalizes the bill later this week.

    South Carolina still uses the electric chair first powered up in 1912 after taking over the death penalty from counties, which usually used hanging.

    It is just one of nine states that maintains an electric chair. It would become just the fourth state to allow a firing squad with Utah, Oklahoma and Mississippi, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

    South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster asked for lawmakers to give him any way to restart executions since a few inmates have exhausted their appeals but their death sentences can't be carried out.

    A Republican and a Democrat, both former prosecutors, proposed adding the firing squad.

    The Democratic former prosecutor said it is evident in a Republican dominated state like South Carolina where the GOP gained extra seats in November that the death penalty can't be abolished like Virginia did last month.

    "The death penalty is going to stay the law here for a while. If it is going to remain, it ought to be humane," said state Sen. Dick Harpootlian, who said hanging is brutal and often leads to decapitation and in electrocution, the condemned "are burned to death."

    Since the last execution was carried out in May 2011, South Carolina's death row has dropped from about 60 inmates to 37 as of now because of natural deaths and prisoners winning appeals and being resentenced to life without parole. Prosecutors have sent just three new inmates to death row in the past decade.

    The Republican former prosecutor, Sen. Greg Hembree, said Tuesday was not the time to debate whether the death penalty was right or wrong.

    But several Democrats said the moral aspect of putting someone to death could not be removed from discussions over the method.

    They also asked senators how they could justify having a debate over putting people to death this week when last month they passed a bill outlawing most abortions in South Carolina, which is now tied up in court.

    Democratic Sen. Kevin Johnson brought up George Stinney, the youngest person executed in the U.S. in the 20th century. He was 14 when he was sent to the electric chair after a one-day trial in 1944 for killing two white girls. A judge threw out the Black teen's conviction in 2014 . Newspaper stories reported that witnesses said the straps to keep him in the electric chair didn't fit around his small frame.

    Johnson drives by a memorial to Stinney each time he comes to Columbia from Manning.

    "You think it was bad to abort a baby? Think how much worse it is to kill a person who when all is said and done is innocent," Johnson said.

    Only one senator in the chamber has seen an execution. Sen. Greg Hembree, who sponsored the firing squad proposal, tried nearly a dozen death penalty cases as a prosecutor and watched one of the men he condemned to death die by lethal injection.

    "There's nothing pleasant about any of those forms. They are gruesome, they are sad and tragic in a way," Hembree said. "Justice is not always a happy place. But it is justice."

    https://m.startribune.com/south-caro...ods/600029427/
    Last edited by Neil; 03-02-2021 at 04:25 PM.

  6. #76
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Neil's Avatar
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    Once again they let the Democratic apparatus add firing squad as an option. The inmates know they can just pick firing squad so they won’t die by electric chair what a useless “conservative” state. I thought this year might be the year they pass the chair as default only but I guess it’s just like any year.

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    There wont be a problem for the state to carry out an execution by firing sqaud. Since they wont need the lethal injection chamber for the next 2 years, they could use it to carry out firing squad executions. It wont take more than 3 months to prepare for firing squads.

  8. #78
    Senior Member Frequent Poster schmutz's Avatar
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    They will still need to come up with a protocol, and even if they copypasteedit the Utah it will still be challenged and probably take a couple of years to get through the state courts.

  9. #79
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Neil's Avatar
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    Yep it’s another useless “conservative state.” Utah is the home for firing squads South Carolina is not and neither is any other state. This bill is a facade nothing more. Virginia was serious with just a few inmates on DR they had true conservative spine in 2016. This state is a worthless all talk no action state.

  10. #80
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Steven AB's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by schmutz View Post
    They will still need to come up with a protocol... it will still be challenged and probably take a couple of years to get through the state courts.
    Their bill provides firing squad only if the convict selects it, and in such case a U.S. Supreme Court precedent says there is no right to sue in federal courts. Their state courts might choose the same solution.

    Their current statute already provides a choice between injection and electrocution for the convict, so maybe that their state supreme court has already ruled on the issue.
    "If ever there were a case for a referendum, this is one on which the people should be allowed to express their own views and not irresponsible votes in the House of Commons." — Winston Churchill, on the death penalty

    The self-styled "Death Penalty Information Center" is financed by the oligarchic European Union. — The Daily Signal

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