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Thread: South Carolina Capital Punishment News

  1. #21
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Senate committee kills bill to hide execution drug sellers

    By JEFFREY COLLINS
    The Associated Press

    COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A bill that would keep secret the names of companies that sell execution drugs to South Carolina died Thursday in a Senate committee, but the idea remains alive in the Legislature.

    The Senate Corrections and Penology Committee voted 7-7 on the bill Thursday, preventing it from passing.

    Voting against it were Democrats who thought condemned inmates should know who makes the drugs that are supposed to kill them and conservatives who thought the state should wait for legal challenges elsewhere to be resolved first.

    State prison officials favor the bill because they said South Carolina has run out of one of its three lethal injection drugs, the anesthetic pentobarbital, and negotiations with pharmaceutical companies are going nowhere.

    "The conversation usually stops when we tell them we are a Department of Corrections and why we want the drugs," Corrections Department Director Bryan Stirling said.

    The committee's vote doesn't kill the idea. Sen. Mike Fair is trying to get a similar proposal passed as part of the budget, and a companion bill has been introduced in the House.

    The legislation was patterned after laws enacted in other states that have run into problems obtaining execution drugs. But some of those laws have been challenged in court. Also, next month the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing a case from Oklahoma about whether the three drugs it uses to kill inmates violate the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

    Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, joined Democrats in voting against the bill. He was worried in part about hiding the companies that sell drugs used in a public execution, but also wanted to see how the court cases shake out.

    Speaking against the bill Thursday was a defense attorney organization that said the best way to make sure companies sell the best quality execution drugs is to keep the process public. The state's Death Penalty Resource and Defense Center urged lawmakers to take their time and see what happens in courts, while a Catholic organization likened the ever-changing mixture of drugs other states are using to execute inmates to human experiments.

    The panel approved an amendment by Sen. Karl Allen allowing companies that sold bad execution drugs to South Carolina to be held responsible. The Democrat from Greenville then voted against the bill, saying the constitutional rights of all inmates must be protected.

    "At least they get the dignity of the Eighth Amendment," Allen said.

    Fair, who is pushing the bill, said if the state has always kept secret the names of the doctors and nurses involved in execution, why shouldn't that confidentiality extend to who provides the drugs.

    "There is no intent to hide anything from the person being executed or the defense team," said Fair, R-Greenville. "All that could be given to them confidentially."

    South Carolina has executed 43 people since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977, but just one inmate since May 2009.

    http://www.seattlepi.com/news/articl...on-6160522.php

  2. #22
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    S.C. lawmaker proposes firing squads to deal with lethal drug shortage

    Condemned inmates could face the firing squad in South Carolina if lethal injection drugs aren’t available for an execution, under a proposal by an Upstate lawmaker.

    Rep. Joshua Putnam, R-Piedmont, said he’s trying to find a fix for he nationwide shortage of lethal injection drugs. South Carolina’s supply of lethal injection drugs expired in 2013. Since then, the state has had no way of executing death-row inmates.

    South Carolina would be the third state to allow execution by firing squad if the bill is approved; the other two are Utah and Oklahoma. Currently no executions are scheduled in South Carolina, but the head of the state prison system recently told lawmakers there would be no way to carry out a death sentence unless a new supply of lethal injection drugs is found.

    The only other method of execution permitted in South Carolina is electrocution, if the inmate agrees to it.

    Pharmaceutical companies have been reluctant to be associated with capital punishment after several botched lethal injection executions.

    http://www.postandcourier.com/articl...-drug-shortage
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  3. #23
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Could the firing squad be a new death penalty in South Carolina?

    Death row inmates, on average, spend 15 years there before they are executed. Much of that time is spent appealing their sentences.

    "I talked to each person that I was responsible for executing. I went down on my own time and talked to them, made sure they were spiritually ready to go." Former State Corrections Director John Ozmint says in the 8 years he was on the job, 15 of his inmates were put to death. 2 of those were done in the electric chair.

    "I said, 'I gotta ask ya', and he said 'I know what you're gonna ask me, Mr. Ozmint'. And I said, 'well, why?' He said '2 reasons. One, I deserve it. I killed 2 people. And 2, I just want you all to know I can take it'."

    South Carolina is 1 of 14 states where an inmate can choose how they are put to death. Inmates on death row can choose one of two methods to end their life: lethal injection and the electric chair: South Carolina being one of four states that still uses the chair.

    Lethal injection is the primary execution method used in all 33 death penalty states. Death by firing squad- an execution method now legal in four states, could soon be an option in South Carolina.

    "A firing squad would be the most humane way of executing someone's life." State Representative Joshua Putnam introduced a bill last month that would bring back the firing squad as a 3rd option in South Carolina. He's been hammered by critics that say the method is inhumane.

    "That would be ridiculous for the state of South Carolina to start with the firing squad," said State Representative Carl Anderson.

    John Ozmint says no Supreme Court has ever found it to be cruel and unusual.

    Representative Putnam is pushing the firing squad option because South Carolina's supply of lethal injection drugs has run dry. Supplies ran out in 2013. Multiple states are facing the same situation- essentially taking the death penalty off the table.

    "My limited discussions with the Directors across the country is that there are no supplies left to be had," said Ozmint.

    Representative Putnam says "If you elect lethal injection, you know you're not gonna be put to death."

    Manufacturers are no longer selling it to states, and pharmaceutical companies are not required to sell states the necessary drugs.

    "Where the drugs have been administered wrong in other states, and you have excrutiating pain for that individual that's sentenced to death." Putnam says if he had to choose a method for himself, he would choose death by firing squad.

    "There's not really much of a way to mess up a firing squad."

    Utah recently became the 4th state to make firing squads an execution option.

    "These are heinous crimes. These are the most nasty, the most evil people of our society," said Putnam.

    "I've talked to men as they've gone to their death who would look you in the eye and tell you 'I deserve the death penalty for what I did'," said Ozmint.

    No one has been executed in the state of South Carolina since 2011. The last sentence was carried out by lethal injection. With that no longer being an option for the forseeable future, state lawmakers continue to search for other options. Ozmint says the State Supreme Court will not issue an execution warrant while there's still uncertainty about how it can be carried out. Meanwhile, death sentences are rapidly declining as the cost of capital punishment cases dramatically increases- costing the state millions for a sentence that may never happen.

    "I don't wanna see those people- those horrible people out there that just get a pass because we can't figure out another solution."

    It's not likely lawmakers will get to debate the death penalty issue before this legislative session ends, but House Representatives say it's an important discussion that needs to happen when the next session starts in January.

    (source: WACH news)
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  4. #24
    Senior Member Member OperaGhost84's Avatar
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    "There's not really much of a way to mess up a firing squad."

    Oh you'd be surprised.

    Moreover, I don't see how this changes anything. Making another option doesn't solve the underlying problem (de facto moratorium on Lethal Injection) without a "trigger" like Tennessee's new law.
    I am vehemently against Murder. That's why I support the Death Penalty.

  5. #25
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Call for death penalty in shooting, but state lacks the drug

    By SEANNA ADCOX
    The Associated Press

    COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Two days after the shooting deaths of nine people during a Bible study at a Charleston church, Republican Gov. Nikki Haley made a bold public statement: The gunman "absolutely" should be put to death. But her state, though largely pro-death penalty, can't secure one of the drugs needed for lethal injections and hasn't executed an inmate since 2011.

    Any potential execution order for Dylann Storm Roof, 21, would be years away. He is charged with nine counts of murder in Wednesday's massacre. He appeared briefly before a judge Friday, and his next court appearance isn't until October. Haley made her comments Friday on NBC's "Today" show, but the governor has no power in Roof's prosecution or sentencing.

    South Carolina's supply of pentobarbital, one of three drugs in the state's lethal injection, expired in 2013. Corrections Director Bryan Stirling has made it clear to legislators that his agency can't buy anymore, even as 44 people are on death row in the state. All attempts to purchase more have failed - a problem in states nationwide. Some are trying to find new drugs and new sources for drugs because pharmaceutical companies have stopped selling them for executions and pharmacists are reluctant to expose themselves to possible harassment.

    Stirling advocated this year for a bill that would keep secret the information of any company or pharmacist providing execution drugs, saying that should help secure them. But bills have stalled in both chambers, and opponents urged legislators not to vote for government secrecy.

    The Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of Oklahoma's three-drug injection, with inmates arguing it doesn't reliably produce unconsciousness and causes pain and suffering. State House Judiciary Chairman Greg Delleney, a Republican, has said he will probably wait for that decision before asking lawmakers to vote on the bill, though Stirling notes that South Carolina uses a different drug.

    Still, Delleney said, "I don't see any urgency to get ahead of the Supreme Court."

    Even with the dozens of inmates on South Carolina's death row, the next execution is probably five years away, according to Emily Paavola, executive director of South Carolina's Death Penalty Resource and Defense Center, which believes South Carolina's death penalty is fraught with problems and advocates for reform. Paavola has said the only way that would speed up is if an inmate who's sentenced to die waives all appeals - an unlikely scenario.

    Death row inmates can choose electrocution, but if a prisoner doesn't want to die that way, the prisons agency could not carry out an execution order without the necessary drugs for a lethal injection, Stirling said.

    Since lethal injection became an option in 1995, only three of 39 people executed have died by electrocution.

    After the bills on drugmaker secrecy stalled, Rep. Joshua Putnam, a Republican, introduced a proposal that would add death by a five-member firing squad to the state's list of approved execution methods. Putnam said while there are cases in which lethal injection drugs didn't work properly and caused pain, "we do know by firing squad you don't feel anything."

    But Rep. Joe Neal said that makes little sense.

    "I can't think of a more hideous spectacle than gunning down someone," said Neal, a Democrat. "Whether people suffer or not depends on the aim of an unknown marksman."

    Putnam's measure also would allow for execution by electrocution if the state doesn't have the lethal injection drugs. Last month, Rep. Mike Pitts, a Republican and retired police officer, introduced a bill that's more straightforward. It would eliminate all references to a lethal injection option, leaving electrocution as the only method.

    No action has occurred on either bill. But they can be taken up when the second of a two-year legislative session resumes in January.

    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...162.1434876355

  6. #26
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    The death penalty and South Carolina Capital cases involve many factors

    BY JOSHUA LLOYD
    The Morning News

    FLORENCE, S.C. – Just two days after nine people, including a state senator, were gunned down at a historically black church in Charleston, Gov. Nikki Haley said accused gunman 21-year-old Dylan Roof should “absolutely” get the death penalty.

    State officials who deal with capital punishment law say the act of murder itself doesn’t necessarily require the death penalty. However, state law includes mass murder, among other types of murder, as a sound circumstance for prosecutors to seek capital punishment.

    Opponents of the death penalty say the state’s laws are fraught with problems and a single death penalty case can cost taxpayers an average of $1.1 million more than a life-without-parole sentence.

    Ed L. Clements III, solicitor for South Carolina’s Twelfth Circuit, said seeking capital punishment isn’t as easy, or as practical, as many people seem to think. He said the specific circumstances must be met, according to law, before death becomes an option.

    “The scrutiny is heightened tremendously during these cases,” he said. “There are so many strategic procedures that can be found ineffective that allow for appeals to be upheld and can get cases overturned. Then the entire lengthy process starts over again.”

    South Carolina law

    According to SC code title 16, chapter 3, “statutory aggravating circumstances” are listed as crimes that prosecutors are allowed to consider for death penalty notices. Some of these include killing a child under age 11, mass murder, murder for hire and murder while trafficking humans, among others.

    Even though an aggravating circumstance may be met, Clements explained, a host of mitigating factors such as age and intellectual handicap level must be considered as well.

    “If a person commits the crime before they’re 18 or if they’re proven to be mentally impaired, we would not be able to seek the death penalty,” Clements said. “The state or county provides a host of services for the defendant to utilize in each case.”

    Cost

    According to data from the South Carolina Death Penalty Resource and Defense Center, a single death penalty case in the state, when carried through to execution, costs taxpayers an average of $1.1 million more than a life-without-parole sentence.

    The same data suggest that a single death penalty trial costs South Carolinians around $415,000 more than a noncapital murder trial. Over half of all death cases in the state are reversed because of error at least once during the appellate process, the center says.

    Clements attributed this to the commonality of death penalty convictions being overturned and retried numerous times, all at the taxpayers’ expense. He said it’s rare for a death penalty case to stand only one trial.

    “When you seek the death penalty, the defendant is automatically entitled to two defense attorneys,” he said. “They can go to a judge with an ‘ex-parte’ or one-party order for the hiring of whoever they feel necessary to hire who they need for their case. This can be social workers, investigators, mental health experts. That makes the cost for the state, as well as the county, extremely high.”

    He said that when deciding to seek the death penalty, prosecutors are aware of the county’s financial status and jury makeup because they often determine if a death notice should be sought.

    “The process takes a tremendous amount of time and a tremendous amount of money from the county itself, so location plays a huge factor in making that decision as well,” Clements said.

    Appeals and Defense

    Emily Paavola, executive director of the South Carolina Death Penalty Resource and Defense Center, said her office works with inmates who have been sentenced to death by representing them during the appeals process.

    “We look back at the trial, everything that happened and identify if there were any errors that made the process unfair or unreliable for the defendant,” Paavola said. “We have to make sure there were no violations of any federal or state constitutional rights.”

    She said over 60 percent of death penalty convictions in South Carolina are reversed at least once.

    Paavola said a reason for prolonged stays on death row –an average of 13 years in South Carolina – can be attributed to the lengthy process of appeals and litigation during death penalty trials.

    “It’s easy for people to look at an individual case and say ‘give them the death penalty’ but there’s a much broader context to think about,” Paavola said. “Like whether it’s good to have a death penalty … we have to ask if this is an efficient and wise way to use of our money, or is there a better way to use our tax dollars?”

    Opposing death sentences

    Ron Kaz, board chairman of South Carolinians Abolishing the Death Penalty, echoed the thought that South Carolina’s death penalty is functionally problematic and added that the system is flawed.

    “You cannot solve problems by killing people,” Kaz said. “Even if prosecutors are 100 percent sure they have the right person, I still don’t think killing that person is any kind of solution to violent crime in this country.”

    Kaz believes the current system is fundamentally flawed and leaves too much room for error.

    “I understand that sometimes mistakes are made and people get it wrong,” he said. “But this isn’t something you can get wrong that just causes a minor inconvenience; we’re talking about a person’s life here. A mistake can mean death.”

    Kaz also said the death penalty in South Carolina is systemically racist, citing the higher likelihood of African-Americans being sentenced to death as opposed to Caucasians.

    “It’s built into the system,” Kaz said. “If someone kills a white person, they’re six times more likely to face the death penalty than if the victim had been black.”

    Death penalty convictions

    Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, South Carolina has sentenced 177 people to death, and 105 of those sentences have been reversed because of errors at least once on appeal. The last execution in South Carolina was in May 2011.

    Forty-five inmates are on death row now in South Carolina, all are males.

    South Carolina is one of 14 states that allow inmates a choice on how they will die, as long as the inmate makes that choice in writing at least 14 days prior to the execution date. Lethal injection and the electric chair are the only two legal methods of execution in the state.

    Causes of decreased executions in recent years are advances in DNA technology, legal rulings protecting inmates with mental disorders and, most recently, the inability of states executing by lethal injection to get proper dosage of drugs used in the process.

    Paavola many of the drugs are produced by foreign countries that oppose the death penalty, and in turn, have refused to sell the drugs to states with capital punishment laws.

    Officials from the Twelfth and Fourth circuits – courts serving the Pee Dee area-- didn’t comment directly on the Charleston shooting case, citing Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson’s expertise and leaving the decision to her office alone.

    South Carolina’s Fourth Circuit currently has two pending death penalty cases. Fourth Circuit officials couldn’t speak on record about the open cases or any specific death penalty procedures.

    http://www.scnow.com/news/local/arti...7a5ebc821.html

  7. #27
    Moderator mostlyclassics's Avatar
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    <on soapbox>

    This "single death penalty case can cost taxpayers an average of $1.1 million more than a life-without-parole sentence" argument is totally specious.

    Following such reasoning to its logical conclusion, punishment with LWOP costs a lot more than an overnight stay in a county lockup. So maybe after convicting someone of mass murder, we should just keep him/her overnight in Al Cannon's Charleston County jail, then turn him/her loose in the morning?

    And how about the escapees Matt and Sweat from Dannemora, NY? The cost to blow away one and capture the other will run into the millions, considering all the lawmen searching for them over days and days. The expense will run about as much, of not more, than the total cost of a couple of executions. Or maybe after they escaped, we should all just doff our caps and applaud them for an escape job well and cleverly done and let them scamper away to murderous lives in the free world?

    Cost is irrelevant in capital murder cases. I wish the antis would take that pseudo-argument and stuff it where the sun don't shine.

    <off soapbox>

  8. #28
    Senior Member Member OperaGhost84's Avatar
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    I echo that sentiment. Unlike scores of what the Government does, prosecuting criminals is actually their job.
    I am vehemently against Murder. That's why I support the Death Penalty.

  9. #29
    Senior Member Frequent Poster schmutz's Avatar
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    Cost is always a factor, and one of the reasons I support the continued use of capital punishment in the jurisdictions that wish to keep it is to prevent the same high cost being applied to LWOP should that become the ultimate punishment.

  10. #30
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    August 3, 2015

    New legal opinion may allow South Carolina to resume lethal injections

    COLUMBIA, S.C. — A new legal opinion from the South Carolina Attorney General's Office may allow the state to move forward with lethal injections.

    The state hasn't executed a death row inmate since 2011, because it can't obtain a supply of lethal injection drugs. State Department of Corrections Director Bryan Stirling recently told WYFF News 4 Investigates that South Carolina doesn't have a shield law to protect the names of drug suppliers and, therefore, companies refuse to sell to the state.

    But the state Attorney General's Office says existing state law offers ample protection to drug companies.

    In an eight-page opinion, Assistant Attorney General Brendan McDonald wrote that law "prohibits the disclosure of the identities of individuals and companies" involved the process of making lethal injection drugs.

    “This opinion is helpful and may assist in obtaining the necessary drugs to carry out an execution," Stirling said.

    However, Stirling said, a shield law enacted by the Legislature would provide the "ultimate protection" to the state's execution team.

    http://www.wyff4.com/news/new-legal-...tions/34510348

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