Capital Punishment

The state says that allowing spiritual advisers to touch inmates as they die is a security risk

Gov. Mike Parson is considering whether to reduce the convict's sentence to life in prison without parole

The move settles a 2017 lawsuit challenging the use of solitary confinement for death row inmates in the state

Ohio passed the law banning the death penalty for seriously mentally ill inmates earlier this year

Attorney General Merrick Garland gave no timetable for the moratorium

Under the state's revised capital punishment law, inmates must have the choice between the electric chair and a firing squad

Attorneys have argued that the state hasn't tried hard enough to get lethal injection drugs or compound them itself — as some other states have done

This comes despite widespread concern that enough safeguards are in place to prevent executing the innocent

The nation's last lethal-gas execution was carried out more than two decades ago

SCDC is slated to use the electric chair to execute Brad Sigmon on June 18

At issue is how juries review "aggravating" factors

Lethal injection was the default execution method in the state when Brad Sigmon was sentenced

Death row inmates will be asked to choose whether they want to die by electric chair, firing squad or lethal injection

Firing squads have not been used in the U.S. for more than a decade