South Carolina prison officials told death row inmate Richard Moore on Tuesday that he can choose between a firing squad, the electric chair and lethal injection for his Nov. 1 execution.
State law gives Moore until Oct. 18 to decide or by default he will be electrocuted. His execution would mark the second in South Carolina after a 13-year pause due to the state not being able to obtain a drug needed for lethal injection.
Moore, 59, is facing the death penalty for the September 1999 shooting of store clerk James Mahoney. Moore went into the Spartanburg County store unarmed to rob it and the two ended up in a shootout after Moore was able to take one of Mahoney’s guns. Moore was wounded, while Mahoney died from a bullet to the chest.
I know a guy who works for a pharmaceutical company that refused to supply a drug that is sometimes used in executions (not a poison, but a fast-acting anesthetic). After US prisons tried to order the drug through straw men and deliberately misrepresenting its use, the company stopped selling it to the US altogether. This is presumably a loss for US doctors, as this drug is typically used in trauma surgery. All the more reason to finally abolish the death penalty - it is barbaric anyway.
The amount of money and hoops these assholes that have a homicide fantasy go through to get the proper drug is kinda wild. And as per usual John Oliver covered it well in his Executions video.
Especially when nitrogen is abundantly available. But, cruelty is the point of these things, so a painless method won’t ever be used.
Nitrogen doesn’t actually work any better (I believe it was actually worse since the idea is based off junk science), and I believe John touches on that in the video I linked above also.
You’re thinking of the execution where they used a mask instead of a chamber like you’re supposed to.
And it’s not junk science that nitrogen inhalation causes hypoxia.