(VitalNews.org) – A group of lawyers overseeing a group of inmates are currently going against the state regarding their death penalty choices.
The lawyers are saying that South Carolina’s electric chair and firing squad methods are “cruel and unusual” methods, however, the state of South Carolina has argued back that the requirements for execution don’t have to be “instantaneous or painless.” They’ve stated that all three methods of execution are within the law and don’t go against any protocols.
The lawyers have argued that execution by firing squad should be reconsidered because it has only been used three times in the United States over the course of 50 years, and all three times were in Utah. They also said that electrocution is a more painful punishment method than it was 100 years ago.
The goal of the law group is to ban the electric chair and firing squad, as well as get the proper information that they’ve requested regarding the ingredients used for lethal injection execution.
South Carolina has not performed an execution in 13 years because the drugs that they use in the lethal injection expired and suppliers are not selling them to prisons anymore unless their identities are concealed.
In 2022, a trial showed that the electric chair and firing squad methods were indeed cruel and unusual. The current law for South Carolina is that the inmates will be executed by an electric chair unless they choose otherwise.
Attorneys continue to say that South Carolina’s shield law is much more “secretive” and that officials should not be able to hide any information regarding the supplier of the drugs that are involved in an execution.
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