COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Supreme Court has halted the upcoming executions of two inmates on South Carolina's death row until the state can up with a way to create a firing squad.
The high court issued an order late Wednesday afternoon, just two days before the first inmate, Brad Sigmon, was to be put to death. Freddie Owens was to have died a week later.
In their ruling, the justices said death row inmates have a legal right to pick their method of death. Since South Carolina currently has only one way of killing an inmate--the electric chair--that's not possible right now. The court is not blocking the executions themselves, but delaying them until the state comes up with a way to carry out the other execution method, which is a firing squad.
The South Carolina Department of Corrections confirmed to News19 that they'd received the order from the South Carolina Supreme Court.
"The department is moving ahead with creating policies and procedures for a firing squad," a spokesperson for corrections said Wednesday afternoon. "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."
Attorneys for the men have also argued said the state hasn’t exhausted all avenues to obtain lethal injection drugs.
Sigmon was set to die on June 18, while Owens was scheduled for execution on June 25. They would have been the first inmates to be put to death in a decade in the state.
Just last week, a state circuit court and a federal district court had refused to stop the executions.
The death penalty is legal in South Carolina but no one on death row has been executed since 2011. That was because of an inability by the state to get the drugs necessary to execute inmates by lethal injection.
But the South Carolina General Assembly passed a new law earlier this year that aimed to bypass that problem by offering inmates the option of death by either the electric chair or firing squad. Gov. Henry McMaster signed the measure into law, saying it's necessary to give families justice.
However, due to the newness of the law, the South Carolina Department of Corrections hasn't come up with protocols to use a firing squad.
Death penalty opponents say both the firing squad and electric chair are inhumane.
Sigmon killed his girlfriend's parents in Greenville with a baseball bat in 2001. He's been on death row since 2002. Owens was convicted of killing an employee of a convenience store.