The First Two Executions Set for June and What You Need to Know About SC’s Electric Chair

By Dylan Bitar

June 15, 2021

 Dylan Bitar is a SC4CJR Spring 2021 Law Clerk and a rising 3L at the Charleston School of Law

Introduction

Executions in South Carolina are set to resume this month, June 2021. Now that the new law regarding death penalties has been enacted by Governor McMaster, the thirty-seven people[1] on death row in SC will be forced to die by electrocution or by the firing squad.

On June 8th, State Circuit Judge Jocelyn Newman issued a decision refusing to block the executions of Brad Sigmon and Freddie Owens that are set for June 18th (date set for Sigmon) and June 25th (date set for Owens). Both inmates filed suits to block their executions while lawsuits are pending in federal court.[2]

The attorneys for Sigmon and Owens both argued in court that the new law is unconstitutional because they were sentenced under the previous law that held lethal injection as the mandatory default execution method.[3] And now that both inmates have exhausted all of their regular appeals, their attempts to pause their executions until the constitutional question is answered has failed[4].

In contrast, attorneys for Governor McMaster and the SC Department of Corrections argued that people on death row do not have the right to choose their execution method and that the law is interpreted to mean that executions will be carried out by the methods available at the time of the execution date.[5]

Now, South Carolina will be the first state to use the electric chair as the default execution method.[6]

Until the SC Department of Corrections establishes a procedure for administering death by firing squad, the upcoming executions will be administered by electrocution.[7]

A.    The History of SC’s 109-Year-Old Electric Chair

South Carolina’s use of death by electrocution started in August of 1912.[8] Since 1912, there have been 248 executions administered in SC by electrocution.[9]

The previous death penalty law that allowed for persons sentenced to death to elect death by electrocution or lethal injection, with lethal injection as the default method, was enacted since June 8, 1995.[10]

For 26 years in SC, people sentenced to death had the right to choose between death by lethal injection or electrocution and the default was lethal injection.

Since the reimposition of the death penalty throughout the U.S. in 1977, it is imperative to understand notable exonerations of people sentenced to death in South Carolina.

Exonerations in South Carolina

George Stinney Jr. – Executed in 1944, Exonerated in 2014

George Stinney Jr. was a 14-year-old black boy when he was charged with killing two young white girls and executed by electrocution.[11] Stinney was convicted by a jury of 12 white men and it took less than ten minutes for the jury to declare him guilty.[12]

In 2014, an S.C. judge ruled that Stinney was denied proper due process.[13]

As of January 2014, after a two-day hearing, the judge vacated Stinney’s conviction after 70 years.[14]

That same judge concluded: “I can think of no greater injustice” when referencing the fundamental deprivation of due process in Stinney’s case.[15]

 Michael Linder – Exonerated in 1981

Michael Linder was sentenced to death in 1979 for the killing of an officer during a highway speed chase.[16] Linder’s attorney’ argued that he shot the officer in self-defense after the officer used his car to hit Linder off his motorcycle.[17]

Following the sentence of death in November of 1979, the South Carolina Supreme Court reversed his conviction due to flawed jury instruction.[18]

The second trial revealed that the spent rounds in question were in fact shot from the officer’s gun and not Linder’s gun.[19] This was later evidence that was not available to Linder in his first trial.[20]

Linder was acquitted on November 9, 1981.[21]

Warren Douglas Manning – Exonerated in 1999

Warren Manning was convicted and sentenced to death in 1989 for murdering a police officer after he was pulled over for driving under a suspended license.[22]

At Manning’s last trial in 1999 showed that the state’s case relied solely on circumstantial evidence and the jury entered into deliberation for three hours after hearing the case.[23]

Manning was acquitted in 1999 after serving 10 years.[24]

The Death Penalty Information Center provides an Innocence Database that records all death row exonerations since 1972.[25]

Accordingly, there have been 185 people who have been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death in the U.S. – 185 people were exonerated since 1972.[26]

B.    What the Electric Chair Process Looks Like

 Considering the execution of Brad Sigmon set for Friday, June 18,  here is what you need to know about SC’s 109-year-old electric chair.

 When administering executions by the electric chair, the typical procedure calls for the person to be shaved and strapped to the chair by their chest, groin, legs, and arms.[27] A skull cap that provides the current for the electricity is placed on the scalp of the person and forehead with a moist saline sponge.[28] Then, a second electrode is moistened with conductive jelly and attached to the shaved legs of the prisoner.[29]

 The person is then blindfolded and a jolt between 500 and 2000 volts is sent to the prisoner’s body for approximately thirty seconds.[30] Doctors will allow the body to cool before checking to see if the prisoner’s heart is still beating and, if it is, they will send a second jolt of electricity through their body – this process will continue repeatedly until the prisoner is pronounced dead.[31]

 Death by electrocution can cause the body to create violent movements resulting in fractures or dislocations, tissue swelling, defecation, vomiting, smell of burning and smoking, and often result in third degree burns where the electrodes are attached to the body.[32]

Conclusion

Consequently, with the refusal to stay the executions of Sigmon and Owens while litigation is pending concerning the constitutionality of the new death penalty laws, executions in South Carolina will be forcibly done by electrocution.

As of June 18, Brad Sigmon will mark the first prisoner to be executed in South Carolina by electrocution since 2008 despite him being sentenced to death by lethal injection under the previous law. Following, Freddie Owens will be executed a week later on June 25 by electrocution as well.

The ten-year stay of executions, as a result of the inaccessibility of the drugs needed to implement the lethal injection, is over. South Carolina will begin executing people on death row by electrocution until the department of corrections establish a procedure for administering the firing squad.

Then, people on death row will have the ability to choose between firing squad or electrocution.

 While these two prisoners’ execution dates are set and inevitable, the constitutional question regarding the application of SC’s new death penalty law to people already on death row looms pending litigation.

Citations

[1] Death Row List, South Carolina Department of Corrections (June 15, 2021) http://www.doc.sc.gov/news/death-row-report.pdf.

[2] Emily Bohatch, Judge Denies SC Inmate’s Challenge to Electric Chair, Attempt to Stall Executions, TheState.com (June 11, 2021) https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article252022023.html.

[3] Id.

[4] Michelle Liu, South Carolina Court Weighs Pausing Death Penalty Law, APnews.com (June 7, 2021) https://apnews.com/article/sc-state-wire-south-carolina-courts-laws-government-and-politics-b29045f4c14657b34dab999ac3dff7fb.

[5] Associated Press in Charleston, South Carolina Law Forcing Choice of Electric Chair or Firing Squad Faces Challenge, The Guardian (June 7, 2021) https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/07/south-carolina-death-penalty-law-court.

[6] Methods of Execution, Authorized Methods by State, Death Penalty Information Center https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution/authorized-methods-by-state (the description under South Carolina still reflects the iteration of the previous law)

[7] The Guardian, supra.

[8] Death Row / Capital Punishment, South Carolina Department of Corrections (May 2021) http://www.doc.sc.gov/news/deathrow.html.

[9] Id.

[10] Id.

[11] Bill Chappell, S.C. Judge Says 1944 Execution of 14-Year-Old Boy Was Wrong, NPR.org (Dec. 17, 2014) https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/12/17/371534533/s-c-judge-says-boy-14-shouldn-t-have-been-executed.

[12] Id.

[13] Equal Justice Initiative, Court Acknowledges Wrongful Execution of 14-Year-Old George Stinney (Dec. 19, 2014) https://eji.org/news/george-stinney-exonerated/.

[14] Id.

[15] Id.

[16] Meghan Barrett Cousino, Michael Linder, The National Registry of Exonerations https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetailpre1989.aspx?caseid=197.

[17] Id.

[18] Id.

[19] Id.

[20] Id.

[21] Id.

[22] Death Penalty Information Center, Innocence and the Crisis in the American Death Penalty, at 53 (2004) https://documents.deathpenaltyinfo.org/pdf/Innocence-and-Crisis-Rpt.f1560295687.pdf

[23] Id.

[24] Id.

[25] Innocence Database, Death Penalty Information Center https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/innocence.

[26] Id.

[27] Description of Each Execution Method – Electrocution, Death Penalty Information Center https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution/description-of-each-method.

[28] Id.

[29] Id.

[30] Id.

[31] Id.

[32] Id.