South Carolina authorities announced Friday that the state now has the means to enforce the death penalty; it has become one of the few US states where the death penalty is legal and feasible. .
The state Department of Corrections said it had notified the attorney general’s office of the fact that protocols had been drawn up and prison renovations completed in the Colombian capital so that death row inmates could be executed by firing squad.
This possibility was enshrined in state law in May 2021, giving death row inmates the choice between execution by firing squad or lethal injection. Then the use of an electric chair became the basic method of execution.
Apart from South Carolina, only the states of Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah allow executions by firing squad. In these states lethal injection is the primary method of killing.
There have been three executions by firing squad since 1976, all in Utah, according to the government-run Death Penalty Information Center.
The most recent was that of Ronnie Lee Gardner, 49, convicted of murder in 2010.
In South Carolina, the most recent execution took place in 2011 and was that of Jeffrey Moots, 36, convicted of the murder of his inmate. It was done with a lethal injection.
Since the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of the final sentence in 1977, the South Carolina authorities have carried out 43 executions. Currently, 35 prisoners who have been sentenced to death are awaiting execution, according to the Ministry of Corrections.
The execution chamber at the state prison has been renovated to add a special metal seat for those sentenced to death by firing squad, protective equipment and bulletproof glass that will separate the room from the witness area, according to a press release from the authorities.
Members of the executive detachments will be prison staff who must meet specific criteria, the text added.
Source: AMPE
Source: Capital
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