Death by firing squad deemed legal by South Carolina Supreme Court

The electric chair and the firing squad have both been deemed constitutional ways to end a death row inmate’s life, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled.

The five justices were split, with Justice John Few writing the lead opinion arguing against the electric chair and firing squad being cruel or unusual forms of punishment.

Few also wrote that allowing inmates to choose how they die cannot be cruel because it allows them to pick which method will cause “the least pain.”

“A condemned inmate in South Carolina will never be subjected to execution by a method he contends is more inhumane than another method that is available,” Few wrote.

Both retiring Chief Justice Don Beatty and incoming Chief Justice John Kittredge wrote separate opinions disagreeing with the majority’s ruling. Beatty argued that regardless of choice being available, execution by the electric chair or firing squad violated the state’s ban on cruel, corporal, or unusual punishment. Kittredge took specific issue with the firing squad as an “unusual” form of execution.

The decision overturns a 2022 ruling from Richland County Judge Jocelyn Newman finding both forms of execution unconstitutionally cruel.

Four inmates sued the state in 2021 after a law was passed that granted execution by firing squad as acceptable.

The law was initially introduced after the state ran out of its supply of lethal injections and struggled to find a pharmaceutical company that would supply it with the drugs due to fear that it would become public knowledge. In 2023, the state passed a shield law that would protect the privacy of the company supplying the drugs, and by September, the state had lethal injection drugs. However, lawyers for the inmates argued that the shield laws prevent inmates from knowing the potency of the drugs.

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“No inmate in the country has ever been put to death with such little transparency about how he or she would be executed,” Justice 360 lawyer Lindsey Vann wrote.

There has not been an execution in South Carolina since 2011. There are 32 inmates on death row.