The top court in US state South Carolina has blocked two executions by electric chair set for this month under the state’s recently revised capital punishment law, as the US state scrambles to find alternatives to lethal injections amidst a drug shortage.
South Carolina had planned to execute two convicted murderers by electric chair on Friday, the first use of capital punishment in the state in a decade.
But the state’s supreme court on Wednesday ruled the men cannot be put to death until they have the choice of death by firing squad, as set out in the state’s revised law, which compels the condemned to choose between electrocution or firing squad if lethal injection drugs are not available.