South Carolina to take a break from executions for the holidays

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The South Carolina Supreme Court has decided the state should take a break from executions for the holidays.

Justices issued an order on Thursday saying they would wait to sign the next death warrant until at least Jan. 3.

South Carolina restarted its death chamber this year after an unintended 13-year break in executions in part because companies refused to sell the state drugs needed for lethal injections if the companies could be identified. A privacy law now hides the names of suppliers and prison officials were able to obtain the drugs.

The one-page ruling offered no reason for the break. The justices could have issued a death warrant Nov. 8 for Marion Bowman Jr. that would have been carried out on Dec. 6.

Two inmates have already been executed. Four others who are out of appeals and facing a schedule suggested by the Supreme Court of an execution every five weeks asked the justices for a break during the holidays.

“Six consecutive executions with virtually no respite will take a substantial toll on all involved, particularly during a time of year that is so important to families,” the lawyers for the inmates wrote in court papers.

Attorneys for the state responded that prison officials were ready to keep to the original schedule and pointed out that the state has conducted executions around the Christmas and New Year’s holidays before, including five between Dec. 4, 1998, and Jan. 8, 1999.

State law requires executions to be carried out on the “fourth Friday after the receipt of such notice," so if the justices do issue a death warrant for Bowman on Jan.3, his execution would be Jan. 31.

After allowing the death penalty to restart, the Supreme Court promised in August to space out the executions in five week intervals to give prison staff and defense lawyers, who are often representing several condemned inmates, time to handle all the legal matters necessary. That includes making sure the lethal injection drugs as well as the electric chair and firing squad are ready as well as researching and filing last-minute appeals.

Bowman, 44, was convicted of murder in the shooting of a friend, Kandee Martin, 21, whose burned body was found in the trunk of her car in Dorchester County in 2001. Bowman has spent more than half his life on death row.

Bowman would be the third inmate executed since September after the state obtained the drug it needed to carry out the death sentence. Freddie Owens was put to death by lethal injection Sept. 20 and Richard Moore was executed on Nov. 1.

South Carolina was among the busiest states for executions but that stopped in 2011 once the state had trouble obtaining lethal injection drugs because of pharmaceutical companies’ concerns they would have to disclose they had sold the drugs to officials.

The state Legislature has since passed a law allowing officials to keep lethal injection drug suppliers secret, and in July, the state Supreme Court cleared the way to restart executions.