South Carolina House members voted to approve a bill designed to restart Executions in the state

By

 South Carolina House members voted Wednesday to approve a bill designed to restart executions in the state by adding firing squad or electrocution as options if lethal injection drugs are not available. The news comes after a nearly 10-year pause in executions in the state.

While the death penalty is legal in South Carolina, which has 37 people on death row, the state has been unable to purchase drugs needed to carry out executions by lethal injection. This bill would force people sentenced to death to choose between the electric chair and a firing squad if lethal injection drugs were unavailable.

The state Senate had approved the bill in March, and it will move next to the governor's desk for approval. In a statement to CBS News, a spokesperson for Governor Henry McMaster said he would "proudly" sign this legislation into law.

The bill, first introduced by Republican lawmakers in the state Senate, was first written to require the electric chair as the only option if lethal injection was unavailable, but a Democrat, Senator Dick Harpootlian, helped introduce an amendment that would also allow inmates to choose death by firing squad, which some see as more humane than the electric chair.

This 2019 photo shows the electric chair previously used by the South Carolina Department of Corrections.KINARD LISBON/SOUTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS/AP

In a 2017 Supreme Court dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that while some may find death by firing squad to be regressive, evidence suggests that it may cause nearly instant death, and has yielded fewer botched executions than lethal injection. She wrote, "In addition to being near-instant, death by shooting may also be comparatively painless."

Senator Karl Allen, a Democrat who opposed the bill, cautioned against resuming executions, citing racial disparities among those sentenced to death. Of the 282 people who have been executed in South Carolina since 1912, 208 were Black, according to the South Carolina Department of Corrections.

"Unfortunately, we have ignored the statistics which indicate that our implementation of the death penalty and electrocution is having a disparate impact among poor people and African Americans," he said. Allen pointed to the 1944 execution of 14-year-old George Stinney, whose conviction was vacated 70 years after his death.

Allen also called firing squads "inhumane" and said, "it does not meet the 2021 societal norms."

In November, South Carolina postponed the execution of death row inmate Richard Moore after the state could not obtain the drugs to carry out lethal injection. Moore was given the option but declined the alternative execution method: electrocution. Moore was found guilty of the 1999 murder of a convenience store clerk during a robbery. In an email, Moore's lawyer declined to comment on the bill.

Senator Shane Martin, the Republican chairman of the Senate Corrections and Penology Committee, said the bill wasn't about whether the state has a death penalty, but rather, about making the death penalty law functional. "There's no need to have a law if we can't enforce the law," he said.

South Carolina, like many other states which still carry out the death penalty, has faced difficulty buying lethal injection drugs because pharmaceutical companies refuse to sell drugs they know will be used for executions, according to Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a group that does not take a position on the death penalty but is critical of its application.

As execution drugs remain difficult to purchase, states across the country have pursued alternate execution methods, Dunham said. Oklahoma has begun efforts to use lethal gas, and in Tennessee, some inmates opted to be killed by electrocution after a spate of lethal injection executions went wrong.

Allen said he was concerned that the bill did not define what made lethal injection drugs "unavailable," and he feared inmates could be sent to the electric chair if drugs were simply deemed too expensive. "They're putting a price on life and dignity and humanity," he said.

Dunham said that while public opinion on execution varies from state to state, Americans view methods like a firing squad or electric chair as far crueler than lethal injection.

Senator Katrina Shealy, one of the Republicans who helped introduce the bill, acknowledged that many execution methods pose risks. "There have been, you know, botched (lethal injection) executions where the person, it took them longer to die. But that's the same thing with the electric chair. You know, you could take two jolts instead of one jolt. So, there's always a possibility. That's not something you want to happen." 

Shealy cited the case of a man who was sentenced to death after he was convicted of murdering his five children. "As it is right now we have no way to put them to death," she said. "I don't think it should be used lightly. I think it should be used. 

Thanks for reading leave your thoughts in the comment section below 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

During World War II, some Jewish men and women in concentration camps faced sexual violence

By
Image
  During World War II, some Jewish men and women in concentration camps faced sexual violence, due to wartime discrimination, antisemitism, and genocidal conditions among other reasons This discrimination happened both inside concentration camps run by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime and also outside of the camps.  READ MORE :  How Iran Executed seven prisoners and amputated five This sexual violence and discrimination happened not only in Germany but throughout Europe in areas that the Germans occupied during the war. Outside of concentration camps, sexual violence happened in many places, including but not limited to Jewish people's homes, Jewish hiding spaces, in public, and at killing sites. There were more than 44,000 camps and sites for incarceration which were under the control of the Nazi regime between 1933 and 1945. The origins of the sexual abuse and segregation of Jewish men and women was primarily due to their race. The Nazis used these sites for a variety of reasons such a
Read more

THE PAINFUL EXECUTION OF A YOUNG MAN HANGED IN PUBLIC IN IRAN 09 MARCH.

By
Image
 YOUNG MAN HANGED IN PUBLIC 09 March 2006 : a young man was hanged in public in the western city of Qazvin. The daily Iran only identified him as 28-year-old Habib.  The execution took place in public in a town square in the presence of the judge who had issued the execution sentence. Habib was accused or armed robbery. (Sources: Iran Focus, 08/03/2006) Related Article  DESPERATE WOMAN RESCUED FROM HANGING HERSELF TO DEATH Information from reliable source to YIRIMAMBO ADVOCACY GROUP UPPER WEST REGION indicate that a woman from East District information gathered from Wa East district in the Upper West region indicate that a married woman with six children who allegedly wanted to hang herself to death is battling with problems. It has been fetched but obvious that she can not do anything else for survival nor her mother to care for her family. It is noted that she is a sickler and her mother a stroke patience. Despite her poor health condition, she and the husband that are taking care of
Read more

The man found guilty as a minor is given the death penalty by a Saudi court. " Brutality of life"

By
Image
  Abdullah al-Huwaiti was arrested at the age of 14, and after being found guilty of murder, he was sentenced to death at the age of 17. A Saudi court has maintained Abdullah al-Huwaiti's death sentence. The adolescent was found guilty of acts he may have committed as a minor. READ MORE:  The worst and horrifying hanging in Iran bridge London is "horrified" by the images of three Huwaiti, who was convicted of murder and armed robbery at the age of 17 and arrested in 2017 when he was just 14 years old, was sentenced to death by Saudi Arabia's Court of Appeal on Monday. The death penalty against Huwaiti, who is currently 19 years old, "defies United Nations experts' plea that his death sentence be reversed," according to a statement released by the UK-based legal NGO Reprieve. "It is intolerably cruel to sentence a kid to death. Abdullah has experienced increasing levels of emotional stress with every court decision, and he has lived his whole adoles
Read more

16 year's old girl burnt alive by some crazy mob, the are Guatemalan Iynch mob".

By
Image
 Girl, 16, burnt alive by Guatemalan lynch mob. A 16-year-old girl has been bashed and burnt to death in a public lynching in Guatemala that was captured on video. The girl was reportedly accused of being part of a group that killed a taxi driver. The film shows her fate at the hands of a large mob in a village in Rio Bravo province. It also reveals the brutality of the lynchings that are routine in the poor, central American country - and throughout the region. Fairfax Media has chosen not to show the video, but its contents are described below. At the start of the video, which has been circulated on YouTube, the girl is seen crouched on the ground having sustained severe facial wounds. After standing up in a disoriented manner, she is grabbed by a woman and then attacked by the mob. The girl is pushed to the ground and then set alight. She writhes on the concrete as the flames grow, eventually getting back on her feet but collapsing to the ground a few second later. At one point, whi
Read more

Iran hanged three men in public in northeastern town (graphic photos)

By
Image
 Iran (graphic photos): Three men hanged in public in northeastern town NCRI – Three prisoners were hanged in public in a northeastern town in Iran on Sunday. The victims identified by their first name and last name initials as Mehdi V, Ehsan K. and Mahmoud V., were hanged in the town of Torghabeh near the city of Mashhad. The state-media reports said two of the men had been sentenced to death and the third one sentenced to hanging plus 100 lashes in public. Sunday’s public hanging follows the execution of at least 14 prisoners on the New Year’s Day in several prisons in four cities in Iran. Four women were among those executed on the New Year’s Day. They were hanged in Shahab prison in the city of Kerman (southern Iran). Another group of seven prisoners were hanged in Shahab prison on the same day. In Qazvin, a 38-year-old prisoner sent to gallows in Boeen Zahra prison. Two others were hanged in city of Bandar Abbas. Since Hassan Rouhani became president of the clerical regime, over 1
Read more

THE BRUTAL EXECUTION OF DENNIS RADER THE MAN WHO MIRDERED A FAMILY OF FOUR IN COLD BLOOD, HE MADE THE CHILDREN WATCH AS HE STANGLED THEIR PARENTS

By
Image
 When Dennis Rader murdered a family of four in cold blood, he made the children watch as he strangled their parents. Then, he took the 11-year-old girl to the basement where he removed her underwear and hung her from a sewer pipe. He told the girl, "Well, honey, you’re going to be in heaven tonight with the rest of your family." Read the shocking story of the BTK killer here: For 30 years, Boy Scout troop leader and church council president Dennis Rader was secretly the BTK murderer — while looking like the perfect family man to his neighbors in Kansas. Dennis Rader was the president of his church congregation as well as a loving husband and a doting father. Altogether, he seemed to be a reliable and responsible man to all who knew him. But he was leading a double life. She had no idea that for 30 years her father preyed on girls just like her. This is the brutal story of the BTK Killer. Dennis Lynn Rader was born on March 9, 1945, as the oldest of four in Pittsburgh, Kansas
Read more

IRAN Publicly Hangs Man From Crane In 2nd Protest-related Execution

By
Image
 Iran publicly hangs man from crane in 2nd protest-related execution Iran executed a second prisoner on Monday convicted over crimes committed during the nationwide protests challenging the country’s theocracy, publicly hanging him from a construction crane as a gruesome warning to others. STORY CONTINUES BELOW ADVERTISEMENT The execution of Majidreza Rahnavard came less than a month after he allegedly fatally stabbed two members of a paramilitary force after purportedly becoming angry about security forces killing of protesters. The development underscores the speed at which Iran now carries out death sentences handed down for those detained in the demonstrations that the government hopes to put down. Read more about  Naked woman hanged in the button of bridge as a sign of warning to criminal who are yet to come Activists warn that at least a dozen people already have been sentenced to death in closed-door hearings. At least 488 people have been killed since the demonstrations began
Read more

THE BRUTAL EXECUTION OF MARIA "MASHA" BRUSKINA A BELARUSIAN JEWISH TEENAGE NURSE AND A COMMUNIST MARTYR TO....

By
Image
 Maria "Masha" Bruskina was a Belarusian Jewish teenage nurse and a communist martyr to the anti-fascist resistance during the early years of World War II, as well as a niece of the sculptor and Soviet MP Zair Asgur. While volunteering as a nurse, she cared for wounded Red Army soldiers, and assisted them in escaping then Nazi-occupied Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. For this, she and 11 other communists of the anti-fascist underground were imprisoned, tortured, and when the teenagers refused to reveal any secrets, was publicly executed by the German Wehrmacht. She volunteered as a nurse at the hospital in the Minsk Polytechnic Institute, which had been set up to care for members of the Red Army wounded while defending what was then the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic against the planned genocide of the indigenous Slavic peoples by 3.8 Million Nazi and Finnish troops, a military escalation that remains the largest land invasion in history. In addition to caring
Read more