Columbia, SC (AP) - South Carolina is proposing protecting the identities of companies that provide the state with execution drugs.
Spartanburg Rep. Eddie Tallon told The Associated Press on Tuesday he's filed a bill that will make drug suppliers part of the execution team. Tallon hopes this protection will make companies less reluctant to sell drugs to the state, knowing they'll be used for an execution.
Lawmakers have discussed how to carry out executions after the state's supply of lethal injection drugs expired in 2013. The state has not conducted any executions since 2011, in part because of no available drugs.
Currently, inmates can only be electrocuted if they request that method. South Carolina last used electrocution in 2008 for the execution of James Earl Reed, convicted in 1996 of killing his ex-girlfriend's parents.
