South Carolina may add firing squads to list of execution methods

Published March 4, 2021 11:19pm ET



South Carolina lawmakers voted this week to use firing squads as a way to perform executions to bypass a loophole in which death row inmates were able to extend their lives because of shortages for drugs needed for lethal injections.

On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of state senators voted in favor of introducing death by firing squad, which was proposed as an amendment to an execution bill that would make the electric chair the only alternative to lethal injection. The Senate voted to approve the bill 32-11, with several Democrats joining Republicans on the proposal, though other Democrats also opposed it over their disagreement with the death penalty.

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