South Carolina delays executions to give condemned men opportunity to choose death by firing squad

The executions of the two prisoners were scheduled for this month

File image: This March 2019 file photo provided by the South Carolina Department of Corrections shows the state's electric chair in Columbia, SC. Two South Carolina inmates scheduled to die want an appellate court to halt their deaths by electrocution (AP)

The Supreme Court of South Carolina has delayed the execution by electrocution of two prisoners saying they cannot be put to death until they have the option of a newly established firing squad set out in the state’s freshly revised capital punishment law.

The executions were scheduled less than a month after the passage of a new law compelling the condemned to choose between electrocution or a firing squad if lethal injection drugs aren’t available.

The high court had halted the executions of two prisoners, Brad Sigmon and Freddie Owens, and said that corrections officials need to put together a firing squad so that inmates can really choose between that or the electric chair. It said the state’s plans are on hold "due to the statutory right of inmates to elect the manner of their execution."

The last execution in South Carolina took place in 2011, and two years later its batch of lethal injection drugs expired. Sigmon, 63, was scheduled to be electrocuted on 18 June while Owens, 43, was scheduled for 25 June.

There are 37 men on the state’s death row. According to the Washington-based nonprofit Death Penalty Information Centre, South Carolina is one of eight states to still use the electric chair and four to allow a firing squad.

“The department is moving ahead with creating policies and procedures for a firing squad. We are looking to other states for guidance through this process. We will notify the court when a firing squad becomes an option for executions,” said Chrysti Shain, a spokeswoman for the South Carolina Department of Corrections, in a statement on Wednesday.

The officials of the South Carolina state prison have not indicated when a firing squad would be up and running while death penalty opponents on Wednesday asked the State to stop capital punishment.

Their attorneys have been arguing that death by electrocution is cruel and unusual while the lawyers for the state have said that prison officials are simply carrying out the law and that the US Supreme Court has never found electrocution to be unconstitutional.

The US is witnessing a serious debate on ending the death penalty. During his presidential campaign in 2020, Joe Biden had called for an end to capital punishment. Since he became president in January 2021, his administration’s response on the issue is being awaited by organisations seeking an end to capital punishment.

Earlier this week, the Biden administration had called for the death penalty to be reinstated against the Boston marathon bomber.

Additional reporting by agencies