firing squad

A judge has ruled that a lawsuit brought by four death row inmates challenging South Carolina's execution methods can move forward. Circuit Judge Jocelyn Newman made the ruling Thursday. Lawyers for the inmates asked Newman to closely examine prison officials' claims that they can't secure lethal injection drugs, leaving the electric chair and the firing squad as the only options for execution.

A South Carolina inmate set to die either by a firing squad or in the electric chair later this month is asking the state Supreme Court to halt his execution. Lawyers for 57-year-old Richard Moore say he shouldn't face execution until judges can determine if either method is cruel and unusual punishment. Moore is set to die on April 29 unless a court steps in. He has until next Friday to choose between the South Carolina's electric chair, which has been used twice in the past 30 years, or being shot by three volunteers who are prison workers in rules the state finalized last month.

The state of South Carolina has scheduled its first execution after prison officials indicated they are ready to conduct executions by firing squad. Richard Bernard Moore is scheduled to die April 29 after the state Supreme Court issued an execution order Thursday. The 57-year-old Moore has spent more than two decades on death row after he was convicted of killing convenience store clerk James Mahoney in Spartanburg. Moore could face a choice between the electric chair and the firing squad. Lawmakers added the firing squad option to the state's capital punishment law last year to work around a decade-long pause in executions attributed to a lack of lethal injection drugs.

South Carolina has given the greenlight to firing-squad executions. The method was codified into state law last year after a decade-long pause in carrying out the death sentence over the state's inability to procure lethal injection drugs. State prison officials said Friday that renovations have been completed on the death chamber in Columbia to allow for a firing squad. Legislation that took effect last May made the electric chair the state's primary means of execution while giving inmates the option of death by firing squad or lethal injection, if those methods are available. South Carolina's last execution took place in 2011.

The inmate scheduled to be the first put to death under South Carolina's recently revamped capital punishment law has filed a last-minute request seeking to halt his execution in the electric chair. Attorneys for Brad Sigmon argued in papers filed Thursday that the state hasn't exhausted all methods to procure lethal injection drugs. They want a judge to put a stop to his June 18 execution. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for next week. South Carolina says it can't get lethal injection drugs, and a new law would force inmates to choose either the electric chair or a firing squad, in the event lethal injection drugs aren't available.

he South Carolina Supreme Court has set an execution date for one of two death row prisoners suing the state over a new law allowing inmates to choose between a firing squad or the electric chair. Court documents show Brad Sigmon's execution is scheduled for June 18. A lawsuit filed by Sigmon's attorneys earlier this month argues that he can't be electrocuted or shot because he was sentenced under an old law that made lethal injection the default execution method. State prison officials have previously said the electric chair is ready to use but they are still working on developing a firing squad.