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As states in the United States seek to replace the death penalty by injection in the case of drug shortages, prisoners must choose to die through firing squads, the court stipulated.
The Supreme Court of South Carolina blocked Two executions As states in the United States are scrambling to find an alternative to the death penalty in the face of drug shortages, according to the state’s recently revised death penalty law, an electric chair conference will be held this month.
South Carolina He planned to execute Brad Sigmund on an electric chair on Friday. He was found guilty of two murders in 2002. This was the state’s first use of the death penalty in ten years. The date for Freddie Owen’s murder in an armed robbery and his execution by the electric chair is set for June 25.
But the state’s Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that these people cannot be executed unless they can choose to be executed by the firing squad. This is stipulated in the state’s revised law, which forces death row inmates to undergo electrocution or execution if they cause death by injecting drugs The choice between teams is not available.
The regulation aims to restart the death penalty after a 10-year involuntary moratorium attributed to the country’s inability to purchase drugs.
Spokesperson for the South Carolina Department of Corrections tell Local media Greenville News said, “The department is advancing the development of policies and procedures for firing squads. We are seeking guidance from other states in this process.”
“We will notify the court when A firing squad Become an option for execution. “
Their lawyers argued that death by electrocution was cruel and unusual. They also said that these people have the right to inject the death penalty, and the state has not exhausted all methods to obtain injection drug injection.
Another prisoner sentenced to death, Richard Moore, was originally scheduled to be executed in December 2020, but the South Carolina Supreme Court previously delayed the execution due to a lack of injecting drugs.
Moore has petitioned the State Superior Court to vacate his death penalty And is waiting for a response. The last person executed by the electric chair was the murderer Lynda Lyon Block, who was convicted in Alabama in 2002.
gas chamber
In addition to electric chairs and firing squads, some states also plan to use gas chambers for death sentences.
Arizona begins renovation Its gas chamber was last used 22 years ago, and prisoners were executed at the end of last year. The state also purchased hydrogen cyanide gas, which the Nazis used to kill 865,000 Jews in Auschwitz alone.
Alabama may also plan to start executions through gas chambers, but it requires nitrogen and oxygen deprivation.
Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) Report Citing court documents, the Alabama Department of Corrections “is about to complete the preliminary physical construction of the nitrogen hypoxia system and its safety measures.”
“Once the build is complete… the security experts will conduct on-site visits to evaluate the system and look for any issues that need to be resolved.”
The document does not specify whether the state plans to use gas chambers for specific executions.
According to DPIC executive director Robert Dunham (Robert Dunham), it is difficult to tell what may be the problem. He told Newsweek that the execution of the death penalty through hypoxia “has never been done before, and no one knows whether it will be like this. Supporters of work say they will.”
“And there is no way to test it, because it is totally unethical to kill someone experimentally against their will,” he said.
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