SC Gov. to condemned prisoners: Firing squad or electric chair – you decide!

It sounds like something from a dystopian satire. But like much in modern Crazy America it is completely true.

Those who have been sentenced to death in the Palmetto State will now be able to choose the mode of their demise.

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signed a bill over the weekend that will require death row inmates to choose between firing squad or the electric chair. The reason for the change of policy, which McMaster announced in a tweet on Monday, is the supply chain crunch that is impacting many other areas of American life.

The state had previously used the lethal injection method of execution but a lack of the necessary drugs has prevented it from doing so for many years.

In fact, it has been 10 years since South Carolina last executed an inmate on death row. Lawmakers have said that’s because pharmaceutical companies have refused to sell states the drugs to carry out lethal injections.

Under the new bill signed by McMaster, lethal injection remains as the primary method for executions under the law, but the state will mandate that prison officials can use an electric chair or firing squad if they don’t have the drugs.

Across the US, 24 states still have a death penalty law in place. Fewer than 50 death sentences have been imposed each year for the past six years. Many national political figures, including President Joe Biden, oppose the death penalty and want to end its use.

Three other states — Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah — allow firing squads to carry out executions.