The South Carolina Senate voted 32-11 in favor of expanding the permitted ways of executing prisoners of death. The bill, presented to the Senate last year, would allow the use of firing squads and the electric chair for executions.
The bill was first introduced last December in response to an expiring lethal injection stockpile. The project changes the main method of execution for the electric chair and allows prisoners to choose lethal injection or firing squad, as long as the method is available.
In addition, if the prisoner chooses the lethal injection and it is not available, the method of execution will be immediately standardized for the electric chair.
South Carolina is one of nine states that still has an electric chair and would become only the fifth state to approve firing squads. There are currently 37 death row inmates in South Carolina, some of whom have exhausted all of their resources.
The bill now goes to the House, where it must be approved, before going to the Governor, who must sanction it.