New law makes inmates choose electric chair or firing squad

South Carolina had been one of the leading states in putting inmates to…

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Lawyers for the men with potentially imminent death dates are considering suing over the new law, saying the state is going backward.


From 1996 to 2009, South Carolina executed close to average of three inmates a year. But a lull in death row inmates reaching the end of their appeals coincided a few years later with pharmaceutical companies refusing to sell states the drugs needed to sedate inmates, relax their muscles and stop their hearts.



Democrats in the House suggested several changes to the bill that were not approved, including livestreaming executions on the internet and requiring lawmakers to attend executions.

“We must be willing to look at the faces of the individuals we are voting on today to kill,” said Rep. Jermaine Johnson, a Democrat from Hopkins.



“In the midst of a national reckoning around systemic racism, our Governor ensured that South Carolina’s death penalty – a system rooted in racial terror and lynchings – is maintained,” Knaack said in a statement.


Seven Republicans in the House voted against the bill, most of them saying it did not make moral sense to approve sending people to their deaths, when three months ago, many of those same lawmakers approved a bill outlawing almost all abortions, saying all life is sacred.

“If you’re cool with the electric chair, you might as well be cool with burning at the stake,” said Rep. Jonathon Hill, a Republican from Townville.

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