South Carolina Death Row: Methods, Appeals, and Clemency

South Carolina’s death row held 23 men as of late 2024, all housed at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. The state resumed carrying out death sentences in September 2024 after a 13-year pause, and by April 2025 had executed five inmates, three by lethal injection and two by firing squad. That makes South Carolina one of the more active capital-punishment states in the country right now, after more than a decade of doing nothing.

Who Can Be Sentenced to Death

South Carolina reserves the death penalty for murder cases where a jury finds at least one statutory aggravating factor during a separate sentencing hearing. The prosecution must prove that factor beyond a reasonable doubt. Without one, capital punishment is not an option, and the judge imposes either life in prison or a minimum of 30 years before parole eligibility.¹

The statute lists 12 aggravating circumstances. Among them:

Murder committed during another serious crime, including kidnapping, criminal sexual conduct, burglary, armed robbery, arson, drug trafficking, poisoning, physical torture, dismemberment, trafficking in persons, or larceny with a deadly weapon.
A prior murder conviction.
Creating a great risk of death to multiple people in a public place with a weapon or device capable of widespread harm.
Murder for money or anything of monetary value.
Killing a judge, prosecutor, law enforcement officer, corrections or detention employee, or firefighter during or because of their duties, including former holders of those positions.
Killing a spouse, parent, sibling, child, or household member of a judge, prosecutor, or officer to intimidate or retaliate against that official.
Directing another person to commit the murder, or acting as someone else’s agent in doing so.
Two or more victims killed in a single act or the same course of conduct.
A victim 11 years old or younger.
Killing a witness or potential witness to prevent or punish cooperation with a criminal investigation.
Defendants previously classified as sexually violent predators under state law.

Even when a jury finds an aggravating factor, death is not automatic. Jurors weigh those factors against any mitigating evidence the defense offers before choosing between death and life imprisonment.¹

Who Cannot Be Executed

Federal constitutional rules narrow the pool further. Defendants younger than 18 at the time of the crime cannot receive a death sentence; the U.S. Supreme Court held in 2005 that executing juveniles violates the Eighth Amendment.² Defendants with intellectual disabilities are also categorically exempt under the Court’s 2002 ruling in Atkins v. Virginia, though states retain some latitude in defining how the disability is assessed.³

A prisoner whose mental state has deteriorated to the point that they cannot understand they are being executed, or why, cannot be put to death either. The Court established that limit in 1986, and if competency lapses on death row, the state must halt the execution until it is restored.⁴ And capital punishment is limited to cases where the victim died. The Court ruled in 2008 that imposing death for crimes like child rape, where the victim survives, violates the Eighth Amendment.⁵

At sentencing, jurors must be allowed to consider any relevant mitigating evidence the defendant offers, whether or not the statute lists it. A childhood history of abuse, mental illness, military service, or a clean record can all be presented as reasons to choose life. Individual jurors may give that evidence weight even if others on the panel disagree.

Where Death Row Inmates Are Held

Male death row inmates live in the Edisto Unit at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, kept entirely separate from the general prison population.⁶ The state moved death row there in July 2019 from Kirkland Correctional Institution, where inmates had been held in small, windowless cells for as much as 23 hours a day. A federal lawsuit over those conditions helped drive the move.

Life at Broad River is still highly restricted, but conditions are better than at Kirkland. Inmates now interact with one another more, hold jobs inside the unit serving meals, cleaning common areas, and doing laundry, and attend communal worship services. Newly sentenced inmates go directly to death row, with commitment paperwork processed through Kirkland. Any female inmate under a death sentence would be held separately at the Graham (Camille Griffin) Correctional Institution.⁷ Movement within the unit requires heavy restraints, and contact with staff is tightly controlled.

Methods of Execution

South Carolina authorizes three methods: electrocution, firing squad, and lethal injection. Governor Henry McMaster signed Senate Bill 200 in 2021, making electrocution the default and adding the firing squad as a new option. Before that, lethal injection had been the primary method, but the state’s drug supply expired in 2013 and pharmaceutical companies refused to sell replacements.

An inmate must choose a method in writing at least 14 days before the scheduled execution. If the Department of Corrections certifies that lethal injection drugs are available, the inmate can pick that option. If the inmate refuses to choose, the execution proceeds by electrocution. When lethal injection is unavailable, the choice is between electrocution and firing squad.⁸

The South Carolina Supreme Court upheld both the firing squad and the electric chair in its 2024 decision in Owens v. Stirling, holding that neither method is cruel or unusual under the state constitution.⁹ The firing squad uses three volunteer shooters who aim at a target placed over the inmate’s heart. The electric chair delivers high-voltage current to cause cardiac arrest. Lethal injection uses chemicals to render the inmate unconscious before stopping the heart. A separate shield law keeps the identities of drug suppliers, execution team members, and exact protocols confidential, which eventually allowed the state to acquire injection drugs again.

The Appeals Process

A death sentence triggers a long sequence of legal reviews. It commonly takes 15 to 20 years, and each stage must be exhausted before the next opens up.

Direct appeal. Every death sentence is automatically appealed to the South Carolina Supreme Court, which reviews the trial for legal errors, improper jury instructions, or insufficient evidence.
State post-conviction relief. The inmate files a separate petition arguing ineffective trial counsel, newly discovered evidence, or constitutional violations not raised on direct appeal. The ruling can be appealed back to the state Supreme Court.
Federal habeas corpus. If state courts deny relief, the inmate can petition a federal district court, then the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, and ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court. Most of the delay in capital cases happens here.
State habeas corpus in original jurisdiction. In rare cases, the South Carolina Supreme Court will hear a habeas petition directly, but only after all other remedies are exhausted or shown to be inadequate.

Throughout, the inmate remains on death row.

Setting the Date and Carrying Out the Sentence

Once appeals are resolved, the process moves fast. State law requires the execution to occur on the fourth Friday after the Supreme Court’s clerk notifies the Department of Corrections that the appeal has been affirmed, dismissed, or abandoned. The only exceptions are a stay from the Supreme Court or clemency from the governor.¹⁰

After the date is set, the inmate is placed under constant observation in a death watch cell, receiving final visits from family, counsel, and religious advisors. On the day itself, a specialized team escorts the inmate to the execution chamber.

State law also fixes exactly who may watch. The list is short:

Up to three approved representatives of each victim’s family, subject to space.
The solicitor from the county where the crime occurred, or a designee.
Three media representatives covering wire service, print, and broadcast.
The chief law enforcement officer from the agency that investigated the case, or a designee.
The inmate’s attorney and a religious leader. The inmate may substitute one or both with immediate family members who are at least 18.

No one outside that list can attend. Phones, cameras, and recording devices are not permitted inside the execution facility.¹¹ Afterward, a medical professional confirms the absence of a pulse, the time of death is recorded, and the Department of Corrections issues a public statement.

Clemency

The governor has constitutional authority to grant a reprieve or commute a death sentence to life imprisonment. The governor may act independently of the Board of Probation, Parole, and Pardons, though the board can hold hearings on clemency petitions. If the governor requests the board’s recommendation and then rejects it, the governor must explain that decision to the state legislature. In practice, clemency in capital cases is exceedingly rare, and most inmates rely on the courts rather than executive mercy.

Why Executions Stopped, and Why They Started Again

South Carolina carried out no executions between 2011 and 2024. The lethal injection drug supply expired in 2013, pharmaceutical companies refused to sell replacements, and because lethal injection was the default method most inmates were willing to choose, executions stopped.

The 2021 law was written to break that impasse. By making electrocution the default and adding the firing squad, lawmakers ensured at least one method would always be available. The shield law protecting supplier identities eventually helped the state acquire injection drugs again as well.

Executions resumed in September 2024. By April 2025, five inmates had been put to death, three by lethal injection and two by firing squad. Brad Sigmon was executed by firing squad on March 7, 2025, and Mikal Mahdi on April 11, 2025. No other state has used a firing squad so frequently in modern times. Whether the pace continues depends on ongoing litigation and the state’s ability to keep both its drug supply and its execution infrastructure in place.

1
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 16-3-20 – Punishment for Murder; Separate Sentencing Proceeding When Death Penalty Sought
2
Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. Roper v Simmons
3
Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. Atkins v Virginia
4
Legal Information Institute (Cornell Law School). Alvin Bernard Ford v Louie L Wainwright
5
Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. Kennedy v Louisiana
6
South Carolina Department of Corrections. OP-22.16 – Death Row
7
South Carolina Department of Corrections. Institutions
8
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 24-3-530 – Death Penalty; Methods of Execution
9
Justia. Owens v Stirling
10
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 17-25-370 – Execution of Death Sentence Upon Affirmance of Judgment or Dismissal or Abandonment of Appeal
11
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 24-3-550 – Witnesses at Execution