Latest news with #firing squad
Fox News
30-05-2025
- General
- Fox News
South Carolina death row inmate chooses lethal injection after firing squad controversy
A South Carolina man on death row who had been considering death by firing squad opted Friday for lethal injection instead after another inmate appeared to linger before dying when bullets apparently missed his heart. Stephen Stanko's attorneys told him that lethal injection would feel like drowning when a lethal dose of pentobarbital is injected into the inmate's veins and there's a rush of fluid into the lungs. Medical experts hired by the state have said the drugs render an inmate unconscious before the inmate feels any pain, but experts hired by inmates have said the rush of fluid can feel like drowning. The U.S. Supreme Court denied a delay to his June 13 execution Wednesday that was requested so he could learn more about his options. In addition to lethal injection and firing squad, the convicted double murderer could have also chosen the electric chair. An autopsy on Mikal Mahdi, the killer of an off-duty police officer executed by firing squad in April, showed the inmate may have been in excruciating pain for up to a minute, much longer than the expected 15 seconds to lose consciousness, after all the bullets missed his heart, his lawyers said, calling it "botched." Stanko had been sentenced to death twice for two separate murders. In April 2006, Stanko, 57, beat and strangled girlfriend Laura Ling to death and raped her teenage daughter and slit her throat. The daughter survived and testified against him at his trial. Hours after the murder, he went to his 74-year-old friend Henry Turner's home, shot him to death and stole his truck. South Carolina resumed executions in September after a 13-year break after it ran out of lethal injection drugs and pharmacies refused to provide more unless a new secrecy law protected their privacy.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Tennessee death row inmates want firing squad over lethal injection ahead of state's first execution in years
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — As Tennessee is set to carry out its first execution under the state's new death penalty protocol this month, some death row inmates say the firing squad would be more humane. Currently, the state's main method of execution is lethal injection, but death row inmates whose crimes were committed before Jan. 1, 1999, also have the option of the electric chair. Kelley Henry, the chief of the Capital Habeas Unit at the Federal Public Defender's Office, questions the constitutionality of the two options because they can both cause severe pain. 📧 Have breaking news come to you: → 'When that chemical enters your system, that poison, it's going to eat away the lining of your lungs, cause fluid to rush into your lungs, and then you will essentially drown in your own fluid,' Henry said. 'Or there's this other opportunity where you can be electrocuted and your internal organs will all be cooked, and it feels like you're being set on fire.' In addition, the lethal injection drug, pentobarbital, has strict procurement, storage, transportation, and administration guidelines, which a 2022 independent report revealed the state wasn't following under its old death penalty protocol. Henry told News 2 that, due to those issues and the potential for severe pain, many inmates would prefer the firing squad as an execution method. 'What our clients have proposed is the firing squad because that doesn't require sophisticated training. It's still brutal, it's still incredibly violent, but what we know now from science and the Department of Justice report that came out in Jan. of this year, where the United States Dept. of Justice said we are no longer going to use pentobarbital because of the ways in which it causes super added pain and suffering…' Henry said. 'With the firing squad, you're going to see a brutal death, but it will be much quicker.' Tennessee Republicans tried to add the firing squad as an execution option in 2023, but the bill never made it out of committee. 'Why would we want correctional officers to sit there and point guns at individuals as a form of killing? It's almost legalizing first-degree murder. That is not cool,' Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis) said in 2023. 'Some people have survived an initial volley of bullets in a firing squad execution, leading to a second volley of bullets,' Rep. G.A. Hardaway (D-Memphis) read from a lawsuit out of South Carolina during a 2023 committee hearing on the bill. 'If some of this information is accurate, we're probably going to end up in court on constitutional issues.' A similar bill was brought this past legislative session, but it never made it to committee. Henry and other groups will continue to push for what they call a 'constitutional execution' method. 'Even if they're going to be executed, if that's going to be the case, they're still entitled to a constitutional method of execution, and not only are they entitled to it, the citizens of Tennessee want to see a constitutional method,' Henry said. ⏩ It's unclear if lawmakers plan to bring legislation to legalize the firing squad in executions next session. The state plans to execute death row inmate Oscar Smith, by lethal injection, on May 22. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
