Current Events > South Carolina bringing back the firing squad and electric chair

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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/firing-squad-execution-electric-chair-south-carolina-bill/

South Carolina state senators voted Tuesday to approve a bill designed to restart executions in the state by adding firing squad or electrocution as options if lethal injection drugs are not available. The news comes after a nearly 10-year pause in executions in the state.

While the death penalty is legal in South Carolina, which has 37 people on death row, the state has been unable to purchase drugs needed to carry out executions by lethal injection. This bill would force people sentenced to death to choose between the electric chair and a firing squad if lethal injection drugs were unavailable.

Senators approved the bill with a vote of 32 to 11 on Tuesday. The bill will go through a routine vote before it can be passed in the Senate and move to the Republican-majority House of Representatives for consideration. In a statement to CBS News, a spokesperson for Governor Henry McMaster said he would "proudly" sign this legislation into law.

The bill, introduced by Republican lawmakers, was first written to require the electric chair as the only option if lethal injection was unavailable, but a Democrat, Senator Dick Harpootlian, helped introduce an amendment that would also allow inmates to choose death by firing squad, which some see as more humane than the electric chair.

In a 2017 Supreme Court dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that while some may find death by firing squad to be regressive, evidence suggests that it may cause nearly instant death, and has yielded fewer botched executions than lethal injection. She wrote, "In addition to being near-instant, death by shooting may also be comparatively painless."

Senator Karl Allen, a Democrat who opposed the bill, cautioned against resuming executions, citing racial disparities among those sentenced to death. Of the 282 people who have been executed in South Carolina since 1912, 208 were Black, according to the South Carolina Department of Corrections.

"Unfortunately, we have ignored the statistics which indicate that our implementation of the death penalty and electrocution is having a disparate impact among poor people and African Americans," he said. Allen pointed to the 1944 execution of 14-year-old George Stinney, whose conviction was vacated 70 years after his death.
Allen also called firing squads "inhumane" and said, "it does not meet the 2021 societal norms."

In November, South Carolina postponed the execution of death row inmate Richard Moore after the state could not obtain the drugs to carry out lethal injection. Moore was given the option but declined the alternative execution method: electrocution. Moore was found guilty of the 1999 murder of a convenience store clerk during a robbery. In an email, Moore's lawyer declined to comment on the bill.

Senator Shane Martin, the Republican chairman of the Senate Corrections and Penology Committee, said the bill wasn't about whether the state has a death penalty, but rather, about making the death penalty law functional. "There's no need to have a law if we can't enforce the law," he said.

South Carolina, like many other states which still carry out the death penalty, has faced difficulty buying lethal injection drugs because pharmaceutical companies refuse to sell drugs they know will be used for executions, according to Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a group that does not take a position on the death penalty but is critical of its application.
As execution drugs remain difficult to purchase, states across the country have pursued alternate execution methods, Dunham said. Oklahoma has begun efforts to use lethal gas, and in Tennessee, some inmates opted to be killed by electrocution after a spate of lethal injection executions went wrong.

Allen said he was concerned that the bill did not define what made lethal injection drugs "unavailable," and he feared inmates could be sent to the electric chair if drugs were simply deemed too expensive. "They're putting a price on life and dignity and humanity," he said.

Dunham said that while public opinion on execution varies from state to state, Americans view methods like a firing squad or electric chair as far crueler than lethal injection.
Senator Katrina Shealy, one of the Republicans who helped introduce the bill, acknowledged that many execution methods pose risks. "There have been, you know, botched (lethal injection) executions where the person, it took them longer to die. But that's the same thing with the electric chair. You know, you could take two jolts instead of one jolt. So, there's always a possibility. That's not something you want to happen."

Shealy cited the case of a man who was sentenced to death after he was convicted of murdering his five children. "As it is right now we have no way to put them to death," she said. "I don't think it should be used lightly. I think it should be used, you know, when it's called for."

Senator Greg Hembree, another co-author on the bill, is a former prosecutor who said he's witnessed two executions by lethal injection. "They're awful," he said, "There's nothing to be happy about when this sort of a sentence is carried out, but you want the government should be as humane in doing it as possible if we're going to do it."

The last time South Carolina executed a prisoner was in 2011, using lethal injection. The last time the state executed someone by electrocution was 2008.

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Totally normal country
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TreyFlowers posted...

This bill would force people sentenced to death to choose between the electric chair and a firing squad if lethal injection drugs were unavailable

yikes

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Sit these fucks down in front of The Green Mile and make them watch the entire thing.
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UnholyMudcrab posted...

Sit these fucks down in front of The Green Mile and make them watch the entire thing.

These sick assholes would enjoy that shit. I can see the amount of fake crimes minorities committed increase just so they can watch them get killed in their Sunday best.

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Republicans are legitimately turning Psycho. More than they ever were. This is fuckin weird.

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firing squad is actually the most humane form of death penalty, it just looks far worse. Lethal injection is shown that it is one of the worst actually, but of course it just looks the best. This is a good decision IF you are already doing the death penalty which I'm personally against.

I'd much rather have a firing squad than the other two options

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Pretty epic and Chad to die facing a firing squad.


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Firing squad is pretty fucked up ngl

You get a handful of people, give all but 1 of them blanks, tell them to aim and fire. Somebody who had a blank could walk away thinking they killed a man <_<

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Unsugarized_Foo posted...

I'd much rather have a firing squad than the other two options

Same. Lethal injection sounds freaky for me, and the electric chair would easily be the worst.

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MARKINGRAM22 posted...

firing squad is actually the most humane form of death penalty, it just looks far worse. Lethal injection is shown that it is one of the worst actually, but of course it just looks the best. This is a good decision IF you are already doing the death penalty which I'm personally against.

Yeah lethal injection first has the unpleasantness of getting a vein. Then you suffocate to death.

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Id take the firing squad any day of the week because its instantaneous. You people up in arms about that are delusional

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Good

DyingPancake posted...

Id take the firing squad any day of the week because its instantaneous. You people up in arms about that are delusional

Not always and assuming the shooters are accurate and hit your brain with a high caliber bullet....

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I'd rather be shot to death than get the cocktail of random drugs that more than likely will give you an extremely painful and miserable death.

The electric chair though? That's some psychopathy.

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DyingPancake posted...

Id take the firing squad any day of the week because its instantaneous. You people up in arms about that are delusional

Short of a headshot, bullets don't kill you instantly normally.

Pretty quickly but definitely not instantly. Hell, short of getting shot in the heart, the head, or a main artery, your chances of surviving a gunshot wound are pretty high if you can get to a hospital nowadays. Obviously we're talking about a firing squad but shooting someone isn't guranteed death

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I'd definitely choose firing squad. Good for South Carolina to supply options.

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doomcrusader posted...

I'd definitely choose firing squad. Good for South Carolina to supply options.

But there is a better option still: not having the option of using the death penalty at all.

I literally don't get why lethal injection is so expensive and hard.

There are unlimited painless ways to kill someone with the drugs we have available at every hospital

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Good, bullets are much more cost effective and imo humane than lethal injection drugs or electrocution.

Still not a big fan of the death penalty but if you are going to do it do it the most efficient way possible.

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wackyteen posted...

Short of a headshot, bullets don't kill you instantly normally.

Pretty quickly but definitely not instantly. Hell, short of getting shot in the heart, the head, or a main artery, your chances of surviving a gunshot wound are pretty high if you can get to a hospital nowadays. Obviously we're talking about a firing squad but shooting someone isn't guranteed death

Nothing in life is guaranteed obviously, but if youre going to have trained professionals pulling the trigger all aimed at a vital spot the chances of the death being drawn out are very slim

And even if its not instant youre still talking about a much faster time than lethal injection

Either way you cut it its still a better option

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If I found myself on death row, I'd want the firing squad simply so I could go out standing up, much more badass way to die.

Of course, here in Canada executions were banned a long time ago, and rightly so. The whole American criminal "justice" system is completely fucked.

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Anyone know how they choose the executioners? For firing squad i doubt they need a trained medical professional. Probably not a CO either. Active duty military maybe?

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I wonder why someone would choose electrocution.

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Totally normal country and totally normal topic.

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Can you opt for what firearm they blast you away with? Like can I ask for a shotgun to the face?

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Flauros posted...

Anyone know how they choose the executioners?

Raffle at the local GOP fundraiser.

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UnholyMudcrab posted...

Sit these fucks down in front of The Green Mile and make them watch the entire thing.

what do you think got them got them so giddy?

the pro-life people are often sadistic and blood thirsty, unless youre a fetus or a Karen.

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MaddenDude-- posted...

I literally don't get why lethal injection is so expensive and hard.

There are unlimited painless ways to kill someone with the drugs we have available at every hospital

this is all by design. The cruelty is the point.

mark my words, the firing squad shots will be made from afar and theyre not gonna be headshots, the executed party has to suffer.

if these fuckers could get away with it they would have the inmates fight lions and hyenas.


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horrifying

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nfearurspecimn posted...

Can you opt for what firearm they blast you away with? Like can I ask for a shotgun to the face?

What about an RPG? Maybe throw me on a landmine or something

nfearurspecimn posted...

Can you opt for what firearm they blast you away with? Like can I ask for a shotgun to the face?

Doubt it.

It would probably be 5 people, armed with ARs. 1 shot each. Center mass from 15 paces. M193 ammo.

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It's 2021 and we still can't figure out a way to reliably instantly kill people

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guess I better not become a serial killer den haha

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M_Live posted...

Idk, regardless of how heinous the crime was, I think you have to be pretty sick in the head to participate in a firing squad.

Rapists probably deserve it though....

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Jiek_Fafn posted...

It's 2021 and we still can't figure out a way to reliably instantly kill people

There are sure fire ways, that would never be used in an execution.

Like being crushed by an extremely heavy object moving very fast.

Or by an explosion.

Ive seen it happen in accident videos and people are literally liquified

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I never understood why we don't just use morphine to put people to death. We already do use it for that purpose for people who are suffering and just up the dosage and let people slip away. Yeah its not legal in America currently, but it happens with the really old or terminal cancer patients and such. I mean is it super super expensive or really really hard to make? Seems like it would be the most humane way to kill someone, put them to sleep like for surgery and then just a lethal dose of morphine where they won't even feel anything.

Another way I would think we can do it is just drain their blood. When you start losing all your blood you get weak and tired and eventually will pass out to never wake up again. No pain or worries about if anyone is suffering.

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If the death penalty is something that is done, I feel a firing squad is the best option. Or better yet, jsut have a trained execution take a desert eagle to the person's head and kaboom. Much cheaper and less painful then any other execution.

Also as someone who does support the death penalty. It should only be given to people who commit the worst acts imaginable. Like serial killers, serial rapists, child molesters, etc.

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*shrugs*

Call me when the discussion is about abolishing the death penalty. As long as we keep performing executions like the barbarians we evidently are, I don't particularly care how pleasant of an experience it is.

If you managed to get a death sentence, you must have done something pretty terrible to begin with.

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yutterh posted...

If the death penalty is something that is done, I feel a firing squad is the best option. Or better yet, jsut have a trained execution take a desert eagle to the person's head and kaboom. Much cheaper and less painful then any other execution.

Also as someone who does support the death penalty. It should only be given to people who commit the worst acts imaginable. Like serial killers, serial rapists, child molesters, etc.

We don't give the death penalty to child molesters on purpose. This used to be a thing until the dumbasses finally realized that if the person molesting the kid is going to be put to death then what purpose is there for keeping the kid alive? I mean if you are going to molest a kid and you know if you get caught you are going to die, then why would you take the risk of letting the kid live to potentially tell on you in the first place?

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wackyteen posted...

Firing squad is pretty fucked up ngl

You get a handful of people, give all but 1 of them blanks, tell them to aim and fire. Somebody who had a blank could walk away thinking they killed a man <_<

Perhaps the intention is opposite of that. If the shooters do not know who had the live rounds, they dont have to assume they did and its less of a burden.

That being said, Im not sure why any member of an execution squad would feel guilt anyway, considering its a job.

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TheApexPredator posted...

If you managed to get a death sentence, you must have done something pretty terrible to begin with.

yeah its not like innocent people are found guilty all the time

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Can we fit guillotine in there somewhere?

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Imagine if the firing squad all got together and decided they will only aim at non lethal areas to ensure death isnt instantaneous and make the person slowly bleed out and suffer.

dont act like it couldnt happen in america, especially if they use police.

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