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South Carolina House adds firing squad to execution methods

Death Penalty-South Carolina
Posted at 5:33 PM, May 05, 2021
and last updated 2021-05-05 20:34:57-04

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina House has voted to add the firing squad to the state's execution methods amid a lack of lethal injection drugs.

The chamber's 66-43 vote Wednesday is one of the last steps needed to finalize the bill.

The measure is meant to jump-start executions in a state that used to have one of the busiest death chambers in the country.

The last execution was carried out 10 years ago.

In March, the Senate approved the bill by a vote of 32-11.

The bill requires death row inmates to choose between the firing squad and the electric chair if lethal injection drugs aren't available.

South Carolina is one of only four to allow a firing squad.

Since the U.S. reinstated the death penalty in 1977, three inmates in Utah were killed by a firing squad.

According to The Associated Press, the state has several prisoners in line to be executed, with three of the 37 on death row being out of appeals.