Execution set for 2nd SC inmate suing over death penalty law
Associated PressCOLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Supreme Court on Tuesday issued an execution date for the second of two men on death row suing the state over a new law forcing inmates to choose between dying by firing squad or the electric chair. Owens and another man on death row, Brad Sigmon, sued South Carolina earlier this month, arguing that they can’t be electrocuted or shot since they were sentenced under a prior law that made lethal injection the default execution method. Sigmon’s attorneys have argued that the state Supreme Court should grant a reprieve because there is pending litigation and only one current method of execution possible, the electric chair. Henry McMaster signed into law a bill aimed at restarting executions after an involuntary 10-year pause, when the state ran out of lethal injection drugs.