Lawsuit over South Carolina execution methods can go forward

By MICHELLE LIU
Associated Press/Report for America

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A judge has ruled that a lawsuit brought by four death row inmates challenging South Carolina’s execution methods can move forward. Circuit Judge Jocelyn Newman made the ruling Thursday. Lawyers for the inmates asked Newman to closely examine prison officials’ claims that they can’t secure lethal injection drugs, leaving the electric chair and the firing squad as the only options for execution. Lawyers for the state contend both methods are constitutional and the prisoners are stalling for time. The decision comes a week after the state Supreme Court set an April 29 execution date for Richard Bernard Moore, who would be the first person put to death in the state in a decade.