| Year of Reenactment
(since 1972 suspension) |
1974 | |
| Year of First Execution
(since reenactment) |
1985 | |
| History
|
1841-1911: hanging |
|
| Current Method
|
Inmate choice of lethal injection or electrocution. | |
 |
|
|
South Carolina has life without parole. A jury decides the sentence. The Governor has the exclusive authority to grant reprieves and to commute death sentences to life imprisonment.
Warren Manning was freed after 10 years
on death row following his acquittal on all charges in 1999. The jury deliberated only 3 hours in freeing
Manning, who was represented at this trial by one of the country's leading
death penalty lawyers. Manning
was the 83rd such person freed in the country since 1973.
