South Carolina governor Henry McMaster has signed a bill to resume the death penalty by firing squad and force inmates to choose between that option and the electric chair if lethal injection is unavailable, the state legislature's website showed on Monday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th May, 2021) South Carolina governor Henry McMaster has signed a bill to resume the death penalty by firing squad and force inmates to choose between that option and the electric chair if lethal injection is unavailable, the state legislature's website showed on Monday.
"A person sentenced to death shall suffer the penalty by electrocution or by firing squad or lethal injection, if lethal injection is available at the time of election," the text of the bill states. "The manner of inflicting a death sentence must be electrocution, unless the person elects death by firing squad, if execution by lethal injection is unavailable."
Lethal injection remains the state's the Primary manner of execution, but the new bill requires prison officials to offer death row inmates either of the other two options in the event that the state lacks the necessary drugs for injection.
Since 1985, there have been 43 death penalty execution in South Carolina with 36 people executed by lethal injection and 7 by electric chair, while the last execution in South Carolina was conducted in 2011, according to the data compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center.
