South Carolina does not set a date for the next execution after requests for a holiday pause

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina’s Supreme Court has not set a date for the state’s next execution after lawyers for four inmates out of appeals asked them to postpone deaths until after Christmas and New Year’s. The justices typically issue notices on Fridays because it gives the maximum amount of time of 28 days to prepare for the execution which by law is to be carried out on the “fourth Friday after the receipt of such notice.” The Supreme Court also promised in August to space out the executions in five week intervals to give prison staff and defense lawyers, who are often representing several condemned inmates, time to handle all the legal matters necessary. Freddie Owens was put to death by lethal injection Sept. 20 and Richard Moore was executed on Nov. 1, South Carolina was among the busiest states for executions back then, but that stopped once the state had trouble obtaining lethal injection drugs because of pharmaceutical companies’ concerns they would have to disclose they had sold the drugs to officials. The state Legislature has since passed a law allowing officials to keep lethal injection drug suppliers secret, and in July, the state Supreme Court cleared the way to restart executions.