The South Carolina House has passed a bill to add a new execution method for death row inmates in addition to the lethal injection and electric chair.
Now, inmates can choose to be shot to death after a 66-43 vote Wednesday that came amid a lack of lethal injection drugs.
South Carolina becomes the fourth state to allow a firing squad for executions besides Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Utah.
Three of South Carolina’s death row inmates are out of appeals. Some lawmakers are upset over the new bill.
“Three living, breathing human beings with a heartbeat that this bill is aimed at killing,” Dem. Rep. Justin Bamberg said.
“If you push the green button at the end of the day and vote to pass this bill out of this body, you may as well be throwing the switch yourself.”
