Death By Firing Squad To Be Approved In South Carolina

South Carolina is bringing back firing squads for executing prisoners sentenced to death.

The state voted 66-43 to allow death row inmates to choose to be executed by a firing squad or electrocution if lethal injection drugs are not available. Executions have halted in many states because they cannot obtain the drugs needed to perform lethal injections.

The bill now heads back to the Senate for a final vote and South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster said he intends to sign the bill.

"We are one step closer to providing victims' families and loved ones with the justice and closure they are owed by law," he tweeted. "I will sign this legislation as soon as it gets to my desk."

Democrats blasted the decision to bring back firing squads.

"It's 2021. We should move on from these barbaric forms of punishment that are more medieval than they are modern. Today, our state has taken a step backward, and I am ashamed," State House Democratic Leader Todd Rutherford said in a statement.

There are Death Row 37 inmates in South Carolina, and three of them have run out of appeals.

Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Utah are the only other states that give prisoners the option of being executed by firing squad.

Photo: Getty Images


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