The South Carolina legislature voted today to reinstate firing squads as a method of execution for condemned prisoners, requiring those sentenced to die to choose between the firing squad or electrocution if the drugs for lethal injection aren’t available.
Reported by the Associated Press, the South Carolina House passed the legislation by a 66-43 vote, making the state the fourth to allow execution by firing squad. Of the 27 states that still have the death penalty for capital crimes, only nine states continue to use the electric chair. All others use lethal injection.
The use of lethal injections has come under scrutiny as accounts of prisoners writhing in pain or awakening during the execution process have become public. Many companies will not use their drugs to be used in executions, and some nations refuse to ship drugs made within their borders to be sent to sites or agencies that perform executions.
South Carolina has not executed anyone since 2011, but there are 37 people on death row in the state. Three of those prisoners have exhausted all appeals, meaning there is no legal hurdle standing between them and execution.