State’s SC stops execution of 2 inmates until firing squad formed

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• The South Carolina’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled against the execution of inmates Brad Sigmon and Freddie Owens.
• The tribunal argued that prison officials should let the inmates choose the “execution” method in accordance with the new law.
• The inmates’ lawyers argued that their clients have the right to choose the lethal injection method.

As South Carolina recently passed an updated capital punishment law, the state’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled against executing two death row inmates by way of electrocution. The court argued that the prisoners have the right to choose the firing squad option which was not yet formed.

The high tribunal wrote in their ruling that inmates Brad Sigmon and Freddie Owens cannot be executed since they were not given a choice between death by electric chair or firing squad.

The state’s move will be on hold “due to the statutory right of inmates to elect the manner of their execution,” as written unanimously by the court.

The scheduled executions were authorized less than a month following the revised law’s implementation. If lethal injection is not available, the law mandates the inmates to choose between electrocution or a firing squad. The new measure was granted following the workability of securing the drugs.

In a previous statement, prison authorities said that they have not yet obtained the drugs needed for lethal injection and have not yet assembled a firing squad. This meant that the only option available now is execution by electric chair.

“The department is moving ahead with creating policies and procedures for a firing squad,” South Carolina Department of Corrections spokesperson Chrysti Shain said in a statement Wednesday. “We are looking to other states for guidance through this process. We will notify the court when a firing squad becomes an option for executions.”

Authorities from state prisons have not yet disclosed when a firing squad would be applicable.

Based on their legal findings, the legal team of the two inmates claimed that death by electric chair is “cruel and unusual,” as the new policy moved to a more inhumane act of taking the convicts’ lives.

The lawyers also argued that Sigmon and Owens have the right to die by lethal injection, which was their chosen method. They argued that the state government has not yet saturated all possible ways to be able to obtain the drugs.

On the other hand, state lawyers noted that prison officials were just enforcing the law and that death by electrocution was never deemed by the US Supreme Court as something that is unconstitutional.

In recent months, both inmates have exhausted all conventional appeals in court. The South Carolina Supreme Court then ruled to proceed with their executions earlier this year, but that was before the correction agency said that they cannot carry out the lethal injection because of the unavailability of the drugs and the enactment of the revised law.

Source: AOL