An inmate in South Carolina has chosen to die by firing squad over the electric chair, becoming the first on the state’s death row to be given the option to choose.
Richard Bernard Moore, 57, is scheduled to be executed April 29. Moore is the first person in more than a decade set to be executed in the state and will be the first by firing squad in the nation since 2010.
“I believe this election is forcing me to choose between two unconstitutional methods of execution, and I do not intend to waive any challenges to electrocution or firing squad by making an election,” Moore wrote in a statement.
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Moore’s lawyers are currently pleading his case to the Supreme Court to delay his penalty. In a separate court case, they are arguing that both options are unconstitutional on the basis of being cruel and unusual.
South Carolina began giving death row inmates the ability to choose their method of execution thanks to a law signed last year. The state had trouble obtaining the necessary drugs for a lethal injection, according to an affidavit that South Carolina Department of Corrections Director Bryan Stirling filed last week. Moore was initially scheduled to be executed via lethal injection in 2020, but officials were forced to delay his execution because they didn’t have the drugs.
Meanwhile, death row inmates in Oklahoma are opting for a firing squad option over lethal injection, citing botched injections that result in painful deaths.
In order to facilitate a firing squad, South Carolina’s corrections department remodeled the death chamber with bulletproof windows, a metal chair, and a rectangular opening for the three-person squad. It cost them $53,600 to make the changes.
South Carolina is one of eight states to still use the electric chair and one of four with a firing squad, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
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Moore is one of 35 inmates currently on South Carolina’s death row. He was convicted of shooting and killing a convenience store worker in 2001.
