EXPLAINER: How South Carolina execution firing squad works

By MEG KINNARD
Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — It’s unknown how long a stay will hold off the execution of South Carolina’s first-ever inmate to be put to death by a firing squad as his attorneys pursue legal challenges. But the issuance of Richard Bernard Moore’s death warrant has renewed interest in how a state puts in motion its plans to shoot an inmate to death. South Carolina had planned to put Moore to death by firing squad on April 29. The state added the method to its approved capital punishment methods last year. Since then, prisons officials have been retrofitting the death chamber to add a slot in the wall through which three volunteers will shoot rifles at the condemn’s heart.