By Brian Brant
(COLUMBIA, S.C.) Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed legislation on Friday that would require death row inmates to choose between a firing squad or the electric chair if lethal injections are not available, according to The Hill.
The legislation will change the default method of execution to electrocution and then offer the inmate the alternative method of dying by firing squad. Lethal injection will remain an option utilized if the drugs are available.
It comes as the state looks to restart executions after a decade-long pause since May 2010.
South Carolina's final batch of lethal injection drugs expiring in 2013 and pharmaceutical companies began refusing to sell the drugs necessary to perform lethal injections.
While it is not clear when the law will go into effect, South Carolina prison officials are currently conducting research into how the three states — Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah — use firing squads.
Lawyers for three men set to be executed are now considering suing the state.
“These are execution methods that previously were replaced by lethal injection, which is considered more humane, and it makes South Carolina the only state going back to the less humane execution methods,” Lindsey Vann of the nonprofit Justice 360 told The Associated Press.
However, supporters argue that execution is still legal in the state and the families of the victims of those on death row should be considered.