Without execution drugs, state lawmakers have turned to firing squads and the electric chair.

Sen. Dick Harpootlian who represents the Irmo area introduced the change.

Harpootlian is a former prosecutor who now practices criminal defense law.

He introduced the firing squad option because it was “the least painful” execution method available.

“If we’re going to have it, it ought to be humane,” Harpootlian said.

Death Row inmates can choose either.

The new law retains injection as the primary method but requires the electric chair or firing squad if no drugs are available. Inmates Brad Sigmon and

Inmates Brad Sigmon and Freddie Owens have exhausted their appeals but claim they can’t be electrocuted or shot since they were sentenced under a law making lethal injection the method.

The last 2 Lexington County men put to death by injection were JD Gleaton in 1984 and Larry Gilbert in 1998.

The last Lexington County man to choose the electric chair was Larry Gene Bell in 1996 for the kidnappings and murders of Shari Smith and Debra May Helmick.

37 men wait on Death Row. The state’s last execution

The state’s last execution took place in 2011 and its lethal injection drugs expired in 2013.