SC Senate adds firing squad as method of execution as it advances electric chair bill

South Carolina senators voted Tuesday to bring back the firing squad as a method of execution.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers voted in favor of the measure, which was proposed as an amendment to an execution bill that would make the electric chair the default method of execution. The firing squad amendment was given a voice vote.

The original bill that the amendment was tacked on is aimed at combating a nationwide shortage in lethal injection drugs, caused by drug manufacturers who have sought to clamp down on how their products were being used.

Under current law, inmates have a choice between lethal injection and death by electrocution. If the inmate chooses lethal injection, the state cannot force them to die by means of electrocution, so, by default, the inmate’s execution gets pushed back until the state can obtain the necessary drugs.

South Carolina has been unable to obtain lethal injection drugs since about 2016. To date, the shortage has caused South Carolina to postpone two scheduled executions, with a third one looming.

“For several years, as most of you know, South Carolina has not been able to carry out executions,” S.C. Sen. Greg Hembree, a co-sponsor of the bill, said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “Families are waiting. Victims are waiting. ... The state is waiting.”

If the Senate bill were to pass, offenders would be given the choice between lethal injection, firing squad or electrocution, but if the state were still unable to obtain the necessary drugs, the death penalty would be carried out by electrocution or firing squad. The House is considering a similar bill, though that chamber’s proposal does not include mention of firing squads.

S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster supports changing the law to allow executions to be performed using any “reasonable” and constitutional method, including the firing squad, Governor’s Office spokesman Brian Symmes said. McMaster has called for passage of similar bills for the last three years as the state struggled to carry out scheduled executions.

Hembree, a former solicitor who had tried death penalty cases, argued that death by firing squad is more humane than the electric chair, though he ultimately believes that lethal injection is the most humane.

“Carrying out justice is important,” Hembree, R-Horry, said. “But you don’t want to torture anybody needlessly. That’s not the government’s place.”

Hembree’s argument was backed up by S.C. Sen. Dick Harpootlian, a Columbia Democrat. Harpootlian, a former solicitor who tried a number of death penalty cases, pointed to the state of Utah, which still uses firing squads as a method of execution. In Utah, he said, there has not been one botched execution performed by the team of trained marksmen.

“They’re dead instantly,” Harpootlian said. “The actual pain and suffering of death, it’s actually the least painful and the least suffering of any manner of death.”

Harpootlian called using the electric chair a “horrible, horrible thing to do to another human being.”

“They are burned to death,” Harpootlian said.

Harpootlian, who said he is against the death penalty in general, said South Carolina’s use of it likely won’t change any time soon.

“If we’re going to have it, it should be humane,” Harpootlian said.

Democrats have fought hard against the bill, with most arguments being against the implementation of the death penalty in general. They argued the death penalty can be applied unequally because individual solicitors decide which cases to apply it to. Some point to racial inequities in the make up of South Carolina’s death row; of the 37 inmates on death row, 19 are Black and 18 are white, while African Americans make up only about 27% of South Carolina residents.

They also said it isn’t unheard of for someone on death row to be later exonerated. S.C. Sen. Mia McLeod, D-Richland, pointed to the case of George Stinney, one of the youngest people to be executed by the state in South Carolina history. Stinney was found guilty of and executed in 1944 for killing two white girls, but after his death, Stinney was exonerated 70 years later.

“My primary concern is with the irreversibility of the death penalty,” McLeod said.

McLeod and fellow Democrat Sen. Kevin Johnson, D-Clarendon, pointed out that Republicans call themselves pro-life during debates over abortion ban bills, but then will argue in favor of the death penalty. Republicans have argued that fetuses are innocent and should not be aborted while those on death row have committed crimes.

“I just think that we think it’s bad to abort a baby. Just think about how much worse it is to kill a person after all is said and done that is innocent,” Johnson said.

“I still have a hard time understanding how we have it both ways,” Johnson added. “Either we’re pro-life or we’re not.”

Harpootlian, who said he “abhors” the death penalty, recalled some of the death penalty cases he tried over the years, including the case against South Carolina serial killer Donald “Pee Wee” Gaskins. Gaskins, while serving several life sentences, murdered a man on death row using explosives, and Harpootlian prosecuted him in court for the crime.

Harpootlian said he regrets cases where the person he was prosecuting was put to death via electric chair, but said he would make the same decisions to pursue the death penalty all over again.

“I am no frothing at the mouth prosecutor championing the death penalty,” Harpootlian said. “It is wrong. Morally wrong. But also morally necessary in some extreme cases.”

The Senate voted to give the bill a second reading, meaning the legislators will have one more chance to debate it before it passes the chamber. The vote was 32-11.

“This is not something we should be proud of,” Harpootlian, who voted to advance the bill, said. “Anyone here who is proud of this needs to go to church on Sunday.”

The bill will likely pass the Senate by the end of the week. If it does, it will be sent to the House for consideration, where it will likely pass because House members have already pushed forward a similar bill this year.

Republicans have tried to pass similar legislation in previous years and failed. Last session, the bill managed to pass the Senate by a vote of 26 to 13 and made it through the House Judiciary Committee before it stalled out when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the legislative session.

Republicans are much better situated to pass the bill this year. In November, the GOP won seats in both the House and the Senate, strengthening their ability to derail any Democratic effort to stop the bill.