South Carolina Now Set to Conduct Firing Squad Executions of Death Row Inmates

The South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) announced Friday that it is now ready to conduct death row inmate executions by firing squad.

The announcement comes after South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) signed legislation into law on May 14, 2021, that makes the electric chair the primary means of execution but allows inmates to choose death by lethal injection or by firing squad if the methods are available, the SCDC said in a release.

Breitbart News noted that a lack of lethal injection drug led to a ten-year pause in executions in South Carolina, which ultimately resulted in last year’s law. Three inmates had opted against the electric chair, which automatically scheduled them for execution by lethal injection under the previous law, but the shortage of the drugs prevented the state from carrying out the executions, the Associated Press noted.

In its release, the SCDC said:

The Capital Punishment Facility at Broad River Correctional Institution has been renovated to include the capacity to perform an execution by firing squad. Protocols have been written, and the department is ready to carry out an order of execution by firing squad if the inmate chooses this method.

The state implemented renovations in the “death chamber,” including a second chair in the corner of the room in addition to the electric chair, which is already in the chamber and cannot be moved. The new chair is metal with restraints and faces a rectangular opening about 15 feet away, which the firing squad will aim through to carry out an execution.

“Three firing squad members will be behind the wall, with rifles facing the inmate through the opening,” the SCDC said. “The rifles and open portal will not be visible from the witness room. All three rifles will be loaded with live ammunition.” The execution team members will be employees of the SCDC and will be required to meet specific criteria.

After the inmate is escorted to the death chamber, he or she will be allowed to make a final statement.

Witnesses, who will be behind newly installed bullet-proof glass between the witness room and death chamber, “will see the right-side profile of the inmate. The inmate will not face the witness room directly,” the release states. The inmate, wearing a prison uniform, will be strapped into the chair and a hood will be situated over his or her head. A firing squad member will place an aim point over the individual’s heart.

The execution team will fire after a warden reads the execution order, and a doctor will examine the individual following the shooting. “After the inmate is declared dead, the curtain will be drawn and witnesses escorted out,” the SCDC said.

The renovations cost about $53,600, according to the SCDC.

Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Utah are the other three states that allow death by firing squad. Just three people have been executed in such a manner since 1976, NPR reported.