South Carolina legislature considering bill that would add electric chair and firing squad as execution options

South Carolina state senators voted to approve a bill on Tuesday that would resume executions in the state after a nearly 10 year pause in executions, by adding firing squad or electrocution as alternative options if lethal injection drugs are not available. Senators approved the bill 32 to 11.

The Palmetto State, has been unable to purchase the drugs needed to carry out executions by lethal injection. The 37 prisoners currently on death row, and any more added in the future, would be able to choose between the electric chair and a firing squad if lethal injection drugs were unavailable.

The bill still needs to pass in the Senate and then move to the House of Representatives for approval. A spokesperson for Governor Henry McMaster told CBS News, that he would "proudly" sign this legislation into law.

According to CBS News, South Carolina postponed the execution of death row inmate Richard Moore in November, after the state could not obtain the drugs needed to facilitate a lethal injection. According to Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, many states which carry out the death penalty, have faced difficulty purchasing the required drugs because pharmaceutical companies refuse to sell them if they know will be used for executions.

In Tennessee, some convicted murderers chose to die by electrocution after several lethal injection executions went wrong. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, said in a 2017 dissenting opinion, that while some may find death by firing squad to be regressive, evidence suggested that it may cause nearly instant death, and has produced fewer botched executions than lethal injection. She added that “death by shooting may also be comparatively painless."

The last time South Carolina executed an inmate by electrocution was 2008 and 2011 was the last lethal injection.