South
Carolina is now ready to carry out executions by firing squad, the Department
of Corrections said in a chilling statement Friday. The shootings can begin
once the state Supreme Court approves the specifics of the procedure, the
Greenville News reported.

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The
law was passed in 2021. It would allow the state to spend $53,000 to renovate
the capital punishment facility at Broad River Correctional Institution in
Columbia “to include the capacity to perform an execution by firing squad,” the
statement noted.

To
date, South Carolina’s primary means of execution is the electric chair. But by
law, inmates may now choose death by lethal injection or a firing squad, given
the methods are available. The firing squad option was added after the state
was unable to obtain lethal drugs, which has stalled executions for 10 years.

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At
present, 37 people are on South Carolina’s death row, The Associated Press
reported.

In
a shooting-death execution in the state, three members of a firing squad will
stand behind a wall and aim their rifles at a convict through a square opening,
the News reported.

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The
person will be strapped to a chair on the other side of the wall, facing the
gun barrels, but with a hood placed over their head. A “small aim point will be
placed over their heart by a member of the execution team,” according to the
Department of Corrections statement.

Members
of the firing squad will be volunteers from the department.

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In
the US, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah are the only other states which have
firing squads. Since 1960, four prisoners have been killed by firing squad in
the US — all in Utah. John Albert Taylor, who was convicted of raping and
killing an 11-year-old girl, requested a firing squad for his 1996 execution to
make a point that the state-sanctioned murder.

As
of last year, 24 states allowed some form of execution, and three states had
moratoriums against the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty
Information Centre.