Supreme Court of South Carolina to hear appeal on constitutionality of firing squad and electrocution executions

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - The Supreme Court of South Carolina is set to hear a case that will determine if prisoners can be executed by firing squad and the electric chair.

On Sept. 6 a Richland County judge ruled that firing squads and electrocutions are unconstitutional in the state. This was part of a case involving four death row inmates, one of whom was scheduled to be the first person executed by firing squad after legislators changed the law.

After the ruling, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster and the Director of the SC Dept. of Corrections (SCDC) Bryan Stirling filed an appeal Thursday, Sept. 16. This appeal has been answered by SCSC, which has agreed to hear oral arguments in the case on Jan. 12, 2023, in Conway.

Under current SC law, the default method of execution is the electric chair. If the Supreme Court upholds the ruling South Carolina has no method to carry out executions because the SC Department of Corrections has been unable to acquire the drugs needed for lethal injection.

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SC Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case challenging the constitutionality of the firing squad and electric chair on Jan. 12 in Conway. The state is appealing last week’s ruling in a lower court that SC’s two methods of execution are unconstitutional. pic.twitter.com/lVDjN0T9BS
— Mary Green (@MaryGreenNews) September 16, 2022