South Carolina lawmakers have passed a bill allowing inmates on death row to be executed by firing squad.
The method of capital punishment would be in the absence of lethal drug injection.
It will make South Carolina the fourth state in the nation to do so when written into law.
Oppositions criticised the new measure as medieval, but its supporters say it about bringing closure to the victims.
Since 2011 the Southern state has not held an execution.
The bill progressed by the South Carolina House of Representatives intends to restart execution. Moreover, to avoid the difficulties, the state faces obtaining the drugs for a lethal jab cocktail.
It will head to the state’s Senate for a concluding vote before heading to Henry McMaster, the Republican Governor. Mr McMaster has vowed to sign the bill as soon as it gets to his desk.
Writing on Twitter, he said that they are one step closer to providing justice and closure. Which the victims’ families and loved ones owe by the law.
The state presently has 37 death row convicts. Also, the bill may yet face court challenges.
Why do people want to legalise death by firing squad?
South Carolina currently offers death inmates the choice to die either by the electric chair or the lethal injection. Moreover, inmates cannot be forced to die by a method they did not choose.
All but three executed convicts have opted for the latter since it was discovered in 1995. A three-drug combo that puts prisoners to sleep induces paralysis and then stops the heart.
However, these drugs have become harder to get. The reason is that manufacturers and distributors do not want their products to impose on the death penalty.
On Wednesday, the Republican-controlled House voted 66-43 to make the electric chair the default method of execution. It is when the drugs are unavailable and to offer up the alternative of dying by firing squad.
Richard Harpootlian is a Democrat, and State Senator proposed the option. Saying it would be a more humane than an unusually grisly horrible process by electrocution, where people don’t die immediately.
Seven House Republicans voted against the bill on Wednesday, and one Democrat voted for it.
