S.C. Supreme Court upholds death penalty including firing squad

MORNING NEWSBREAK | The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the state’s death penalty, which now includes a firing squad in addition to lethal injection and the electric chair, is legal.

All five justices agreed with at least part of the ruling, which opens the path to continue executions in a state that hasn’t had one since 2011. South Carolina has executed 43 inmates since the death penalty was restarted in the U.S. in 1976. Nearly all inmates chose lethal injection. The option for firing squad was added in 2023 to circumvent concerns about injections.

In the ruling, two justices, however, wrote they thought the firing squad was not a legal way to kill an inmate, and one justice said the electric chair is cruel and unusual punishment.

But the death penalty law is legal, Associate Justice John Few wrote in the majority opinion, because instead of seeking to inflict pain, the choice between the three execution methods makes the death penalty as humane as possible.

It is unclear when executions could restart or whether lawyers for death row inmates could appeal the ruling. South Carolina has 32 inmates on its death row. Four prisoners are suing, but four more have also run out of appeals, although two face competency hearings before they could be executed, according to reports.

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