Freddie Eugene Owens v. Bryan P. Stirling

Summary

The court held that South Carolina's statute authorizing electrocution, firing squad, or lethal injection as alternative execution methods does not violate the South Carolina Constitution. It concluded that electrocution and firing squad execution are neither cruel nor unusual under the state constitution, that the statute's use of "available" is not vague or an unlawful delegation, and that the Director must provide sufficient information about lethal-injection drugs. The court also rejected the inmates' ex post facto challenge and upheld the statute as a whole because it gives condemned inmates a choice among constitutional methods.