[ad_1]
Lawyers for Brad Keith Sigmon, who was due to be executed Friday, have successfully petitioned the state Supreme Court to stay the execution because there is only one method available in South Carolina, the electric chair.
A law passed in May sought to plug a loophole that allowed death row inmates to postpone their executions indefinitely as long as drugs for lethal injections were not available.
South Carolina does not have the drugs needed to perform lethal injections. Under the new law signed by Republican Governor Henry McMaster last month, inmates must now choose either electrocution or firing squad as the method of their execution.
The director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections said in an affidavit that as of June 3, the only method of enforcement available in the state was electrocution, according to the court order.
“Lethal injection is not available due to circumstances beyond the control of the Department of Corrections and the death squad is currently not available because the Department of Corrections has not yet completed its development and implementation of necessary protocols and policies,” the director told the court, as requested.
“Under these circumstances in which electrocution is the only available means of execution, and because of the prisoners’ legal right to choose their method of execution, we are invalidating the notice of execution,” the court said in the order.
“We further direct the clerk of the court not to issue a further execution notice until the state notifies the court that the Department of Corrections, in addition to maintaining the availability of electrocution, has developed and implemented appropriate protocols and policies for the execution of firing squads,” the order said.
In a statement to CNN, the state’s Department of Corrections said it has received a court order to halt upcoming executions and that it is working to establish policies and procedures.
“We look to other countries for guidance through this process,” the statement said. “We will inform the court when the firing squad becomes an option.”
The order halts executions scheduled for Friday for Sigmon and June 25 for Freddy Owens. The executions will be the first by the state since 2011.
South Carolina is the fourth state to allow execution by firing squad, joining Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Utah.
.
[ad_2]
Picture Credit!