Hearing date set to discuss constitutionality of firing squad, electric chair in South Carolina

The hearing will take place on Jan. 12 in Conway, South Carolina.

GREENVILLE, S.C. — The South Carolina Supreme Court will hear oral arguments about the constitutionality of the firing squad and electric chair as methods of capital punishment next year.

The hearing will take place on Jan. 12 in Conway, South Carolina.

Richland County Judge Jocelyn Newman ruled last week that the firing squad and electric chair are unconstitutional methods of capital punishment.

In part, she ruled, "the General Assembly ignored advances in scientific research and evolving standards of humanity and decency."

Gov. Henry McMaster's office said it will appeal a ruling.

Justice 360, the group that filed the lawsuit on behalf of four death row inmates, said it was very pleased with the result and expected an appeal from South Carolina Department of Corrections and McMaster.

His office told WYFF 4 this week that the office plans to file an appeal but did not give a timeline. An appeal would go to the South Carolina Supreme Court.

Greenville Sen. Karl Allen sits on the Senate's corrections and penology committee.

He said he'd like to see the state find a way to get lethal injection drugs.

"Lethal injection, being a more humane way of implementing the death penalty, is something that we should put a higher priority on and not take the easiest way out to say that a bullet doesn't cost much," he said.

But the Department of Corrections has said companies won't sell lethal injection drugs to the state because it doesn't have a shield law, which would offer privacy to those companies.

That's also what Horry County Sen. Greg Hembree told WYFF 4 back in April.

"Many of the companies that produce those substances about ten years ago, sort of unilaterally said look, you know, you don't have a shield law? We're not gonna sell these things to you," Hembree said.

Other states that use shield laws still use the drugs, including Arizona, which used lethal injection for an execution in June.

Hembree said he plans to file legislation for a shield law in the upcoming legislative session.

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Source: wyff4.com, Staff, September 16, 2022

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