Lawyers for four death row inmates are expected to argue to the South Carolina Supreme Court that the state’s old electric chair and new firing squad are cruel and unusual punishments, and that a 2023 law meant to restart lethal injections hid details about the new drug and protocol used to kill prisoners, reports the Associated Press. The lives of 33 death row inmates hang in the balance, as South Carolina says all three methods fit existing protocols. If the Supreme Court justices allow executions to restart and any additional appeals are unsuccessful, South Carolina’s death chamber, unused in over a decade, could suddenly get quite busy.
South Carolina’s current execution law requires the electric chair, unless the inmates choose a different method. Lawmakers allowed firing squad to be added in 2021. Attorneys for the inmates said prison officials should not be allowed to hide the identities of drug companies, the names of anyone helping with an execution and the exact procedure followed. The inmates also want to know the suppliers for the drug and what guidelines are in place to make sure the potency is right. Too weak, and inmates may suffer without dying. Too strong, and it would cause intense pain when injected, according to court papers. “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, on behalf of death-row prisoners.
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