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Thread: South Carolina Capital Punishment News

  1. #111
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    Electrocution, shooting may end South Carolina execution impasse

    By Jeffrey Collins
    The Associated Press

    South Carolina House members may soon debate whether to restart the state's stalled death penalty with the electric chair.

    At issue is whether to add a firing squad to the execution methods.

    The House Judiciary Committee approved a bill Tuesday allowing inmates to choose to die by being shot in the heart by several sharpshooters.

    That bill has already passed the Senate and Gov. Henry McMaster has said he will sign whatever comes to his desk.

    South Carolina can't perform executions under the current law because the state can't obtain the drugs needed for lethal injection.

    The last execution in South Carolina was in 2011.

    https://wlos.com/news/local/electroc...cution-impasse

  2. #112
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    South Carolina House votes to add firing squad to execution methods; would become fourth state to use shooting

    By Associated Press

    The South Carolina House voted Wednesday to add a firing squad to the state’s execution methods amid a lack of lethal-injection drugs – a measure meant to jump-start executions in a state that once had one of the busiest death chambers in the nation.

    The bill, approved by a 66-43 vote, will require condemned inmates to choose either being shot or electrocuted if lethal injection drugs aren’t available. The state is one of only nine to still use the electric chair and will become only the fourth to allow a firing squad.

    South Carolina last executed a death row inmate 10 years ago Thursday.

    The Senate already had approved the bill in March, by a vote of 32-11. The House only made minor technical changes to that version, meaning that after a routine final vote in the House and a signoff by the Senate, it will go to Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, who has said he will sign it.

    There are several prisoners in line to be executed. Corrections officials said three of South Carolina’s 37 death row inmates are out of appeals. But lawsuits against the new death penalty rules are also likely.

    “Three living, breathing human beings with a heartbeat that this bill is aimed at killing,” said Democratic Rep. Justin Bamberg, rhythmically thumping the microphone in front of him. “If you push the green button at the end of the day and vote to pass this bill out of this body, you may as well be throwing the switch yourself.”

    South Carolina first began using the electric chair in 1912 after taking over the death penalty from individual counties, which usually hanged prisoners. The other three states that allow a firing squad are Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

    Three inmates, all in Utah, have been killed by firing squad since the U.S. reinstated the death penalty in 1977. Nineteen inmates have died in the electric chair this century.

    South Carolina 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. Since the drugs are not available, they choose injection.

    The bill retains lethal injection as the primary method of execution if the state has the drugs, but requires prison officials to use the electric chair or firing squad if it doesn’t.

    “Those families of victims to these capital crimes are unable to get any closure because we are caught in this limbo stage where every potential appeal has been exhausted and the legally imposed sentences cannot be carried out,” said Republican Rep. Weston Newton.

    The lack of drugs, and decisions by prosecutors to seek guilty pleas with guaranteed life sentences over death penalty trials, have cut the state’s death row population nearly in half – from 60 to 37 inmates – since the last execution was carried out in 2011. From 2000 to 2010, the state averaged just under two executions a year.

    The reduction also has come from 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.

    Democrats in the House offered several amendments, including not applying the new execution rules to current death row inmates; livestreaming executions on the internet; outlawing the death penalty outright; and requiring lawmakers to watch executions. All failed.

    https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/2...es/4965362001/
    Last edited by Julius; 05-06-2021 at 11:46 AM.

  3. #113
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    The Senate passed an earlier similar version, making it almost a certainty that the Senate will approve this one and send the bill to Governor for signature. McMaster has said he will sign a bill to add alternate methods of execution. It will be interesting to see how the unavoidable lawsuits will play out, and when a execution will be carried out.
    Last edited by Dogman1947; 05-07-2021 at 12:55 PM.

  4. #114
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    So, to sum up, and please correct me if I got this wrong, in South Carolina, if there are lethal-injection drugs on hand, the default method for execution will be lethal injection. However, the inmate is also free to choose either the electric chair or a firing squad.

    If there are no lethal-injection drugs available, then the default method will be the electric chair. However, the inmate, if he so chooses, can opt for a firing squad.

    Is the above correct?

  5. #115
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    Close. The law changes the default to electrocution. So, if someone fails to choose, they will be electrocuted.

    So if a person opts for lethal injection and the corrections director certifies that there are no drugs available, they will be electrocuted unless they choose the firing squad.

  6. #116
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Neil's Avatar
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    What I want to know is how long would the challenges to firing squad take? You know once this is signed into law the inmates will choose the squad to avoid death for the time being since they don’t have the equipment. The other question is how serious is McMaster on obtaining the equipment?

  7. #117
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fact View Post
    Close. The law changes the default to electrocution. So, if someone fails to choose, they will be electrocuted.

    So if a person opts for lethal injection and the corrections director certifies that there are no drugs available, they will be electrocuted unless they choose the firing squad.
    Thanks, Fact!

  8. #118
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    Stewart v. LaGrand (1999) says there is no right to sue in federal courts a non-default method, in this case firing squad.

    The prosecution should quote LaGrand as a persuasive precedent in their filings to state courts, and they might choose the same rule (at least if they have not already decided it).

    Constituting a firing squad should be an easy and quick task, especially for McMaster who said that he would "proudly" sign the bill.
    Last edited by Steven AB; 05-11-2021 at 05:15 AM.
    "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

  9. #119
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    Including the firing squad was unbelievably stupid. The inmates will all choose firing squad to avoid execution and I doubt SC will call their bluff. The chair is sufficient, but as is typically the case, idiots (in this case legislators) are drawn to shiny objects (in this case guns). Including the firing squad is nothing but anti death penalty subterfuge, and inimical to the state's interests.
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

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  10. #120
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Neil's Avatar
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    It shows how weak and feckless their GOP is. They accepted that squad amendment from a democratic senator who was “morally” opposed to it. I know if Jamie Harrison was in the Governors mansion Dick Harpootlian would easily sign on to an abolition bill.

    The electric chair was just fine and as a matter of fact the electric chair proved very sufficient in Tennessee anyway. Most of the inmates that were executed from 2018 to 2020 chose the chair. If they continue many of them will die by the chair. They even amended their law to have the chair as a back up for the inmates after 1999.
    Last edited by Neil; 05-11-2021 at 07:33 AM.

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