By Brian Brant
(COLUMBIA, S.C.) A South Carolina judge heard arguments on Monday on whether to temporarily pause a new state law that would have forced prisoners set to be executed to choose death by the electric chair or firing squad, according to The Guardian.
Attorneys for Brad Sigmon and Freddie Owens, both set to be executed this month, said the law was unconstitutional because their clients were sentenced under the then-default execution method of lethal injection.
“We’re here today to address a crisis," Hannah Freedman of Justice 360, representing Owens and Sigmon, said. "They’re attempting to make South Carolina the first American jurisdiction to revert to a more brutal, less humane, more onerous method of execution.”
The lawsuit was filed shortly after Republican Gov. Henry McMaster signed the law restarting executions after a 10-year suspension when the state ran out of lethal injection drugs. Prior to the new law, prisoners could opt for electrocution or injection.
The South Carolina Supreme Court scheduled Sigmon’s execution for June 18 after officials said the 109-year-old electric chair was ready. Owens is slated to die on June 25 by lethal injection.
Owens and Sigmon no longer have more appeals left. Their initial execution dates were delayed after the State Department of Corrections could not obtain drugs.
McMaster's attorneys and the department argued the inmates have no right to choose. The department has interpreted the new law to mean officials will execute prisoners with the methods available at the time.
“South Carolina is not going back to a method of execution that is intended to cause pain,” said Daniel Plyler, a lawyer for the corrections agency.
State circuit court judge Jocelyn Newman said she would rule “in the next few days.”
Their lawsuit is one of the several court orders their attorneys are pursuing. Sigmon's lawyers have argued in federal court that South Carolina is not trying hard enough to access the lethal drugs.