A South Carolina death row killer who chose to face a firing squad said he had no choice when he appealed his death sentence.
Richard Bernard Moore, 57, was sentenced to death after being convicted of murder, assault with intent to kill, armed robbery and firearms rape in 2001.
He said he was forced to choose between death by electrocution or firing squad due to a shortage of chemicals for lethal injection, arguing that both methods are “illegal and unconstitutional”.
Pharmaceutical companies refuse to supply lethal ingredients
Recent US executions elsewhere have been carried out by lethal injection, but South Carolina has been forced to abandon that method because drugmakers refuse to supply the necessary ingredients.
As a result, Moore was forced to choose between the electric chair or a firing squad.
A firing squad has been used only three times in the United States since 1976, all in the western state of Utah, when the US Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment.
In court records, Moore said he didn’t agree with even having to make the decision.
“I do not believe or concede that neither the firing squad nor electrocution is legal or constitutional,” he said.
“I don’t think the Department [of Corrections] You must be allowed to certify that a legally prescribed method, such as lethal injection, is not available without demonstrating a good faith effort to make it available.
“However, I am more strongly opposed to death by electrocution. Because the department says I must choose between firing squad or electrocution or being executed by electrocution, I will choose firing squad.
“I do not intend to give up any challenge to electrocution or the firing squad by making an election,” he added.
If executed as scheduled on April 29, he would be the first person executed in the state since 2011 and the fourth in the country to die by firing squad in nearly 50 years.
Electrocution has been used in seven of the 43 executions carried out in South Carolina since 1985. The last time was in 2008.
cruel and unusual punishment
There have been three executions in the US this year and there were 11 in 2021, up from 17 in 2020.
Moore’s attorneys have asked the state Supreme Court to delay his death while another court determines whether any of the available methods amount to cruel and unusual punishment.
His lawyers are also asking the state Supreme Court to delay the execution so the US Supreme Court can review whether his death sentence was a disproportionate punishment compared to similar crimes. State judges denied a similar appeal last week.
South Carolina’s correctional agency said last month it had finished developing protocols for firing squad executions and completed $53,600 (£41,000) in renovations to the death chamber in Columbia, installing a restrained metal chair facing forward. a wall with a rectangular opening 15 feet away.
In the case of an execution by firing squad, three volunteer prison workers will point their rifles at the heart of the condemned prisoner.
Reference-www.telegraph.co.uk