South Carolina Supreme Court Upholds Death Penalty, Including Firing Squad

Letting inmates choose to be executed by a firing squad is OK, South Carolina’s top court ruled on July 31. Giving prisoners sentenced to death the option of execution by a firing squad “cannot be considered cruel because the condemned inmate may elect to have the state employ the method he and his lawyers believe will cause him the least pain,” South Carolina Supreme Court Justice John Few wrote for the majority. The justice also said there is “absolutely no evidence the citizens of South Carolina in any way ever rejected the firing squad.” Lethal injection has been the main execution method in South Carolina since 1995. A law signed by South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster in 2021 made electrocution the primary execution method and listed two alternatives, lethal injection and death by firing squad. The law requires that death row inmates choose their methods of execution....