"South Carolina Debates Resuming Executions with Firing Squad and Electric Chair"

South Carolina is seeking to resume executions using the electric chair and firing squad, arguing that instantaneous or painless death is not mandated. Lawyers for death row inmates are challenging the constitutionality of these methods, as well as the secrecy surrounding the new lethal injection drug and protocol. The state's death chamber, unused for nearly 13 years due to a lack of lethal injection drugs, could become active again if the Supreme Court allows executions to restart. The controversy highlights the nationwide shortage of lethal injection drugs and the addition of new execution methods in other states, such as nitrogen hypoxia in Alabama.