The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday suspended the first prisoner killing by firing squad in the southeastern US state, which was due to take place next week.
Richard Moore, 57, was due to be executed on April 29 for the murder of a convenience store employee during a robbery in 1999.
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Manufacturers refusing to supply the ingredients needed to make a lethal injection, Richard Moore had to choose between the electric chair and the firing squad - two methods less common in the United States and which, according to his lawyers, violate the law. Constitutional Prohibition of "
Cruel and Unusual Punishment
"
“
We accede to this request and temporarily suspend the execution of the accused
”, declared the Supreme Court, promising soon an “
order defining the details of this suspension
”.
“Outdated and barbaric methods of killing”
Richard Moore was reportedly the first death row inmate killed in the state in more than a decade.
On Friday, he had chosen the firing squad, made up of three volunteers from the prison administration, rather than the electric chair.
"
The electric chair and the firing squad are antiquated and barbaric methods of killing, which almost all American jurisdictions have abandoned
," said Lindsey Vann, lawyer for Richard Moore.
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Electrocution has been used for seven of the 43 executions that have taken place in South Carolina since 1985, and has not been used there since 2008. The firing squad has only been used three times in the United States - all in the western state of Utah - since 1976, when the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment.