A bill filed in the Florida state Senate would expand the methods by which death row inmates could be executed.
State Senator Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, introduced Senate Bill 1604 with the objective of safeguarding Florida’s death penalty status in case certain execution methods such as electrocution or legal injection are deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court or the Florida Supreme Court. Additionally, the bill addresses scenarios where obtaining lethal injection drugs becomes unfeasible in the future.
Currently, there is a scarcity of pentobarbital, the substance utilized in lethal injections, prompting several states to explore alternative means of carrying out executions.
In a notable development in March, death row inmate Brad Sigmon from South Carolina was executed via a firing squad, marking the first instance of such an execution method being employed in the United States in over 15 years.
Brad Sigmon was convicted of beating to death his estranged girlfriend’s parents in Greenville County in 2001. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP)
Lethal injection is by far the most popular execution method, accounting for 1,431 of all executions since 1976. Electrocution is second, accounting for 163.
