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South Carolina Schedules Execution After Readying Death Chamber For Firing Squad
Featured Image Credit: Alamy

South Carolina Schedules Execution After Readying Death Chamber For Firing Squad

The state now allows inmates to choose execution by firing squad if the method is available

South Carolina has scheduled its first execution since updating the death chamber to prepare for execution by firing squad. 

57-year-old Richard Moore, who has spent more than 20 years on death row for the murder of convenience store worker James Mahoney, is set to be executed on 29 April, the State of Supreme Court has said. 

Moore could be offered a choice between firing squad or the electric chair. 

The two options have been introduced in South Carolina following a change to law last year after a decade-long halt to executions. 

Richard Moore.
South Carolina Department of Corrections

Executions have been on hold in the state due to the fact it has been unable to get hold of lethal injection drugs. 

The new rules means the electric chair is the primary means for death row prisoners in South Carolina, but prisoners will also be allowed to choose either lethal injection or firing squad if those methods are available. 

The state corrections agency has spent $53,600 on the renovation of the death chamber in Columbia and have fitted a chair with restraints that faces a wall with an opening in it; the room has also been fitted with protective equipment and bullet-proof glass to separate the witness room. 

During a firing squad execution, three shooters - all of whom will work for the corrections department - will have guns that are to be aimed at the convict's head. 

Convicts are given the chance to make a final statement before putting a hood on and being shot.
Alamy

The convict will be given the chance to make a final statement before putting a hood on and being shot. 

South Carolina is just one of four states that allow the use of a firing squad - the others being Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah. 

Moore has used all his federal appeals and was denied another appeal earlier this week. 

His attorney Lindsay Vann has said she will ask the court to stay the execution. 

Moore had been scheduled for an an execution in 2020 but it was delayed after corrections officials said they could not procure the drugs required for a lethal injection. 

South Carolina's last execution was in 2011, when 36-year-old Jeffrey Motts was put to death by lethal injection for murdering a cellmate in 2005.

There are currently 35 inmates on death row in South Carolina.

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Topics: US News, Crime