A South Carolina court said that two prisoners sentenced to death should have the choice of their method of execution
Photo: SOUTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS / Courtesy
Friday, September 20
South Carolina suspends two executions for lack of available firing squad
A superior court in the state of South Carolina suspended two executions on Wednesday until inmates have the option to choose between being killed by electrocution or by firing squad.
A new law requires prisoners sentenced to death to decide between the two methods if drugs for lethal injections are not available.
But as prison authorities still have not formed a firing squad, the court stopped the executions.
Inmates Brad Sigmon and Freddie Owens were to be executed this month .
Sigmon, from 63 years, was to be executed this Friday. He has spent nearly two decades on death row after being convicted in 2002 of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat.
Owens’ execution was scheduled for 25 of June. The man of 43 years has been on and off death row since 1999, when he was found guilty of murdering a store worker during a wave of robberies.
Lack of lethal injections
The convicted murderers were denied lethal injections, the option they both preferred, because the prison authorities did not have the necessary medications.
The shortage of these drugs has caused a pause of 10 years in this axis method
The new law, which took effect in May, was designed to fill a loophole that allowed prisoners to postpone their executions indefinitely if the drugs were not available.
Given the lack of a firing squad, electrocution was the only method of execution available in the state.
But attorneys for Sigmon and Owens contested the use of this method, arguing that their clients have the right to die by lethal injection.
They requested the South Carolina Supreme Court to halt the planned executions of its clients until their appeals had been heard.
On Wednesday, the court ruled in his favor, saying that the prisoners had not been given the option to “choose the manner of execution” .
The court said no further executions should be scheduled until that “the protocols and the policies for carrying out firing squad executions ”are in effect.
Firing squad
In response to the order judicial authorities, South Carolina prison authorities said they were “making progress in creating policies and procedures for a firing squad.”
“We are looking for guidance in other states for this process. We will notify the court when firing squad becomes an option for executions, ”said the South Carolina Department of Corrections.
South Carolina is one of the four states that allow firing squad executions along with Oklahoma, Mississippi and Utah .
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