10 articles on factors SC death row inmates consider before execution choice
This collection of stories examines how individuals, legal teams and institutions address the process and implications of choosing among three execution methods in South Carolina.
A man with two death sentences chose lethal injection after attorneys referenced a problematic firing squad case. Lawyers argued for more transparency about the lethal drugs used in executions at Broad River Correctional Institution.
One case details an inmate’s refusal to select a method because of religious beliefs, requesting the court to make the decision. Another article highlights how a firing squad choice followed years of solitary confinement and alleged attorney inexperience. A third story explores how medical experts question whether inmates executed with pentobarbital suffer unnecessary pain.
Read the stories below.
NO. 1: ‘AKIN TO SUICIDE.’ SC INMATE DEFENDS REQUEST TO HAVE ATTORNEY SELECT METHOD OF EXECUTION
if Freddie Eugene Owens is executed on September 20, he will be the first inmate in 13 years to be put to death in South Carolina. | Published August 29, 2024 | Read Full Story by Ted Clifford
NO. 2: METHOD OF DEATH CHOSEN IN SOUTH CAROLINA’S FIRST EXECUTION IN MORE THAN A DECADE
Freddie Owens is scheduled to be the first inmate in South Carolina to be executed since the state ran out of drugs used in lethal injections in 2011. | Published September 6, 2024 | Read Full Story by Ted Clifford
NO. 3: ‘OUR SYSTEM IS BROKEN.’ HOW ROBBERY GONE BAD, NEARLY ALL-WHITE JURY PUT SC MAN ON DEATH ROW
Richard Moore was sentenced to death in 2001 by a nearly all-white jury for a robbery gone bad following a trial that lasted less than a week. As the execution looms, supporters asking was justice done? | Published October 31, 2024 | Read Full Story by Ted Clifford
NO. 4: DRUG USED IN SC’S EXECUTIONS MIGHT CAUSE UNNECESSARY PAIN, SUFFERING, JUSTICE DEPT. WARNS
Both the federal government and South Carolina carry out the lethal injections using a single drug, pentobarbital, a powerful sedative that some experts warn causes extreme pain and suffering when injected. | Published February 20, 2025 | Read Full Story by Ted Clifford
NO. 5: AUTOPSY REVEALS THAT SECOND SOUTH CAROLINA DEATH ROW INMATE DIED WITH FLUID IN HIS LUNGS
The South Carolina Department of Corrections uses a lethal injection protocol that was suspended by the Department of Justice over concerns that it might cause unnecessary pain and suffering. | Published March 14, 2025 | Read Full Story by Ted Clifford
NO. 6: A SECOND PERSON ON SOUTH CAROLINA’S DEATH ROW HAS CHOSEN TO BE EXECUTED BY FIRING SQUAD
Mikal Mahdi was sentenced to death for the murder of Orangeburg police officer James Myers. | Published March 28, 2025 | Read Full Story by Ted Clifford
NO. 7: 2 SC LEGISLATORS SEEK INVESTIGATION INTO CLAIM OF ‘BOTCHED’ FIRING SQUAD
Cop-killer Mikal Mahdi yelled in pain when he was shot inside of the state’s death chamber on April 11. He was executed for the murder of an Orangeburg police captain. | Published May 13, 2025 | Read Full Story by Ted Clifford
NO. 8: SC MAN WHO RECEIVED RARE DOUBLE DEATH SENTENCE CHOOSES METHOD OF EXECUTION
Stephen Christopher Stanko who murdered his girlfriend, Laura Ling, and friend, Henry Turner, in 2005 was sentenced to death in two separate murder trials. | Published May 30, 2025 | Read Full Story by Ted Clifford
NO. 9: SC FIRING SQUAD ‘INTENDED TO MISS,’ CAUSE INMATE ‘EXTREME SUFFERING,’ SUIT SAYS
Stephen Stanko is hoping a South Carolina federal judge will pause his upcoming execution following claims by his attorneys that that a previous execution by firing squad was botched | Published June 9, 2025 | Read Full Story by Ted Clifford
NO. 10: SC EXECUTIONERS USE TWICE THE DOSE OF LETHAL DRUG THAN PREVIOUSLY REPORTED
The South Carolina Department of Correction’s secret lethal injection protocols call for a second, massive dose of deadly sedative pentobarbital ten minutes into the execution. | Published June 11, 2025 | Read Full Story by Ted Clifford
The summary above was drafted with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists in our News division. All stories listed were reported, written and edited by McClatchy journalists.