Statehouse Report Staff | The S.C. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the state’s death penalty, which now includes a firing squad in addition to lethal injection and the electric chair, is legal.
All five justices agreed with at least part of the ruling, which opens the path to continue executions in a state that hasn’t had one since 2011. South Carolina has executed 43 inmates since the death penalty was restarted in the U.S. in 1976. Nearly all inmates chose lethal injection. The option for firing squad was added in 2023 to circumvent concerns about injections.
In the ruling, two justices, however, wrote they thought the firing squad was not a legal way to kill an inmate, and one justice said the electric chair is cruel and unusual punishment.
But the death penalty law is legal, Associate Justice John Few wrote in the majority opinion, because instead of seeking to inflict pain, the choice between the three execution methods makes the death penalty as humane as possible.
ACLU of South Carolina Executive Director Jace Woodrum denounced the decision and called on the S.C. General Assembly to outlaw all executions, regardless of method.
“The death penalty has no place in our society or under our Constitution,” Woodrum said. “Execution is a costly, ineffective form of cruel and unusual punishment that not only fails to make us safer but raises the possibility of the state killing innocent people in our name.”
It is unclear when executions could restart or whether lawyers for death row inmates will appeal the ruling. South Carolina has 32 inmates on its death row. Four prisoners are suing, but four more have also run out of appeals, although two face competency hearings before they could be executed, according to reports.
State publishes framework for A.I. adoption
A new report from the S.C. Department of Administration (Admin) aims to promote and regulate the use of new artificial intelligence-based technologies in the delivery of state government services.
“The South Carolina’s State Agencies’ Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy … outlines the state’s AI vision, guiding principles, goals and actions necessary for the productive and responsible use of AI,” Department of Administration spokesperson Brooke Bailey told Statehouse Report in a statement. “It is meant to serve as a guide for state agencies in the adoption of AI technologies.”
Under the plan, which was developed in partnership with the national management firm Gartner, Admin will launch two new state entities, the Center of Excellence (COE) and the AI Advisory Group (AIAG), to oversee the adoption process. Once in place, the COE’s mission will be to provide “leadership, best practice insight, evaluation and ongoing collaboration,” while the AIAG will “solicit input from the private sector for the purpose of understanding emerging AI technology trends and industry use cases.”
Despite the excitement surrounding AI, Admin stresses that safety, not speed, will be its top concern.
“While Admin is determined to continue collaborating with agencies to assess the potential use for AI technologies to enable continuous improvement for state government and, ultimately, citizens of South Carolina,” Bailey said, “the agency must first build a foundation that securely and safely embraces the power of AI in state government.”
In other recent news:
Voter groups file suit arguing GOP gerrymandering in S.C. is unconstitutional. A voter advocacy group is asking the state Supreme Court to rule on whether South Carolina’s redrawn congressional maps in the state’s 1st District violates the state constitution.
S.C. needs thousands of poll workers for November’s election. The S.C. Election Commission will compensate counties for 26,028 poll workers using state taxes. Counties can hire additional workers with their own money.
Court halts Title XI change in S.C. The change meant to accommodate students and teachers’ “gender identity” took effect on Thursday around the country except in a few southern states, including South Carolina.
S.C. spending $2.5M to help families pay for child care but fewer will benefit. As federal COVID relief dollars expire, state spending is not enough to cover families losing scholarship funding.
S.C. Freedom Caucus has new leaders. S.C. Rep. Jordan Pace, R-Goose Creek, is the new chairman of the S.C. House Freedom Caucus, a far-right GOP legislative faction that has frustrated Republican leaders since its creation in 2022.
State agencies spent hundreds of thousands helping Secret Service before primaries. A look at how state agencies helped the Secret Service protect candidates in South Carolina before its primaries.
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