The South Carolina Department of Correction said the state is finally prepared to carry out firing-squad executions, a year after the method was codified into state law, The Associated Press reported.
Lawmakers signed on to the bill last summer, which also makes the electric chair the primary means of execution, after a decade-long pause in carrying out death sentences due to the state's inability to obtain lethal injection drugs.
A Wednesday press release by the department said renovations to the Capital Punishment Facility at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia that cost upwards of $53,000 allow it to carry out the provisions of the new law.
"Protocols have been written, and the department is ready to carry out an order of execution by firing squad if the inmate chooses this method," the release detailed.
The department then explained what specific changes were made to the death chamber in accommodation for firing squad executions.
"The chamber now includes a chair in which inmates will sit if they choose execution by firing squad. The chair is in a corner of the room away from the current electric chair, which cannot be moved," the overview read.
"Bullet-resistant glass has been installed between the witness room and death chamber. The firing squad chair is metal with restraints and is surrounded by protective equipment. The chair faces a wall with a rectangular opening 15 feet away."
During a death sentence by firing squad, three executioners are to stand behind a wall and fit their rifles through an opening. An inmate, with a hood placed over their head, will be given one last opportunity to speak, according to the state.
South Carolina is one of four states that permit execution by firing squad, along with Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah. Additionally, 24 states have authorized the death penalty, while three states have halted them indefinitely, per data from the Death Penalty Information Center.
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