South Carolina obtains drugs to carry out executions by lethal injection after 12-year pause

State has not carried out an execution since 2011 after not being able to find necessary drugs

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster walks off the stage during a rally with former U.S. President Donald Trump at the Florence Regional Airport on March 12, 2022 in Florence, South Carolina. The visit by Trump is his first rally in South Carolina since his election loss in 2020 (Getty Images)

South Carolina officials say the state has obtained drugs to carry out executions by lethal injections after a pause of 12 years.

The state went more than a decade without being able to buy the necessary drugs from pharmaceutical companies and has not carried out an execution since 2011.

“Justice has been delayed for too long in South Carolina,” said Governor Henry McMaster. “This filing brings our state one step closer to being able to once again carry out the rule of law and bring grieving families and loved ones the closure they are rightfully owed.”

Officials at the South Carolina Department of Corrections say they made “more than 1,300 contacts in search of lethal injection drugs”, according to the governor.

The state did not say where they had procured the drug.

South Carolina’s 12-year hiatus on executions came after the lethal injection drug they used expired in 2013.

The state’s execution default is the electric chair but allows death row inmates to choose a firing squad or lethal injection.

The SCDC says that it has 34 inmates on death row, but did not specify if any would choose lethal injection.

“Governor McMaster’s announcement that executions can resume in South Carolina has little to do with justice. No matter the method, South Carolina’s system of capital punishment is broken,” said Jace Woodrum, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina.