Gavel 02

History of South Carolina's Death Penalty

By deathpenaltyresource

  • Furman v. Georgia

    US Supreme Court declares the death penalty legislative schemes in use at the time violate the Eighth Amendment.

  • SC reenacts the death penalty

    The “current era” of the death penalty begins.

  • Gregg v. Georgia

    US Supreme Court decisions approving the use of the death penalty under the current schemes.

  • First execution under the new schemes

    Gary Gilmore waives his appeals and is executed in Utah.

  • Michael Linder exonerated

    Michael Linder is acquitted after two years on death row. Linder shot and killed a highway patrol officer. Linder maintained that the shooting was in self-defense. Ballistics evidence was withheld during his first trial, and Linder was convicted and sentenced to death. When the evidence was presented at his retrial, he was acquitted. State v. Linder, 278 S.E.2d 335 (S.C. 1981).

  • First SC execution after reenactment: Joseph Carl Shaw by electric chair

  • Batson v. Kentucky – juror strikes

    The US Supreme Court says prosecutors who use their peremptory strikes to strike black potential jurors must provide a race-neutral reason. Any race-neutral reason will suffice.

  • Ford v. Wainwright – the mentally ill

    The US Supreme Court says states can’t execute the insane.

  • SC executes James Terry Roach by electric chair.

  • McCleskey v. Kemp – racism

    The US Supreme Court says racism in the criminal justice system is not a violation of “equal protection under the laws” unless there was provable intentional racial discrimination in that case.

  • SC executes Ronald Rusty Woomer by electric chair.

  • SC executes Donald Henry Gaskins by electric chair.

  • U.S. Supreme Court decides Herrera v. Collins decision -- innocence

    The US Supreme Court says that new evidence of innocence is not enough for a new trial, unless there is also some constitutional violation in the proceedings.

  • SC Legislature enacts Life Without the Possibility of Parole as an alternative to the Death Penalty.

  • National: Oklahoma City Bombing kills 169 people.

  • SC: Susan Smith sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.

    Jury sentences Susan Smith to life in prison for the murder of her two young sons. Smith initially claimed that “a black man” had stolen her car and kidnapped her sons.

  • SC’s first lethal injection execution: Sylvester Lewis Adams.

  • National: O.J. Simpson acquittal.

  • SC high-water mark for executions

    Highest number of executions in one year in SC (tied with 1998) with six executions.

  • National: Clinton signs AEDPA into law.

    President Clinton signs the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act into law, limiting review of state death sentences by the federal courts.

  • SC executes Robert South by lethal injection.

  • SC executes Fred H. Kornahrens III by lethal injection.

  • SC executes Michael Torrence by lethal injection.

  • SC executes Larry Gene Bell by electric chair.

  • SC executes Doyle Cecil Lucas by lethal injection.

  • SC executes Frank Middleton, Jr. by lethal injection.

  • SC Death Row moves to Lieber

    The SC Department of Corrections moves Death Row from Columbia to Lieber Correctional Institute in Ridgeville.

  • SC executes Michael Eugene Elkins by lethal injection.

  • SC executes Earl Matthews, Jr. by lethal injection.

  • SC executes John D. Arnold by lethal injection.

  • SC executes John H. Plath by lethal injection.

  • SC executes Sammy Roberts by lethal injection.

  • SC executes Larry Gilbert by lethal injection.

  • SC executes J.D. Gleaton by lethal injection.

  • SC executes Louis Joe Truesdale, Jr. by lethal injection.

  • SC executes Andrew Lavern Smith by lethal injection.

  • SC high-water mark for executions

    SC has seven executions in one year, including four in December.

  • Warren Douglas Manning exonerated [precise date unknown]

    Manning is acquitted after 10 years on SC’s Death Row. Manning was tried five separate times for killing a law enforcement officer. He was convicted each of the first four times, and each of those times the case was overturned. In his 5th trial, Manning was represented by expert death penalty attorney & friend of the Center) David Bruck. The case against Manning was entirely circumstantial. Manning consistently maintained his innocence.The fifth jury acquitted Manning after less than 3 hours.

  • SC executes Ronnie Howard by lethal injection.

  • SC executes Joseph Ernest Atkins by lethal injection.

  • SC executes David Rocheville by lethal injection.

  • SC executes Leroy Joseph Drayton by lethal injection.

  • SC executes Kevin Dean Yount by lethal injection.

  • SC executes only one person in 2000

    Kevin Dean Young is the only person executed in SC in 2000.

  • No executions in SC in 2001

  • SC executes three people

    SC executes Richard Charles Johnson, Anthony Green, and Michael Joseph Passaro in 2002.

  • U.S. Supreme Court decides Atkins v. Virginia – mental retardation

    The US Supreme Court says states can’t execute the intellectually disabled (mentally retarded), but allows states to decide who meets that definition.

  • SC executes Richard Charles Johnson by lethal injection.

  • SC executes Anthony Green by lethal injection.

  • SC executes Michael Joseph Passaro by lethal injection.

  • No executions in SC in 2003

  • SC executes four people

    SC executes David Clayton Hill, Jerry Bridwell McWee, Jason Scott Byram, and James Neil Tucker.

  • SC executes David Clayton Hill by lethal injection.

  • SC executes Jerry Bridwell McWee by lethal injection.

  • SC executes Jason Scott Byram by lethal injection.

  • SC executes James Neil Tucker by lethal injection.

  • NY abolishes the death penalty

  • SC executes three people

    SC executes Richard Longworth, Hastings Arthur Wise, and Shawn Paul Humphries.

  • Juveniles: U.S. Supreme Court decides Roper v. Simmons.

    The US Supreme Court says that states can’t execute those who committed the crime when they were less than 18 years old.

  • SC executes Richard Longworth by lethal injection.

  • SC executes Hastings Arthur Wise by lethal injection.

  • SC executes Shawn Paul Humphries by lethal injection.

  • SC extends the death penalty for certain circumstances of child rape.

    SC statute extends the death penalty to those twice convicted of the rape of a child under age 11. The constitutionality of the law is unclear, as the US Supreme Court has said that the death penalty is unconstitutional for rape of an adult.

  • SC executes William Ernest Downs, Jr. by lethal injection.

  • SC executes only one person in 2006.

    SC executes William Ernest Downs, Jr.

  • SC executes only one person

    SC executes Calvin Alphonso Shuler.

  • SC executes Calvin Alphonso Shuler by lethal injection.

  • NJ abolishes the death penalty

  • SC executes only one person in 2007.

  • SC executes three men

    SC executes David Mark Hill, James Earl Reed, and Joseph Gardner.

  • SC executes David Mark Hill by lethal injection.

  • SC executes James Earl Reed by electric chair.

  • SC executes Joseph Gardner by lethal injection.

  • SC executes two men

    SC executes two men: Luke A. Williams (for the murder of his wife and child) and Thomas Treshawn Ivey (for the murders of a law enforcement officer and another man).

  • SC executes Luke A. Williams by lethal injection.

  • NM abolishes the death penalty

  • SC executes Treshawn Ivey by lethal injection.

  • SC executes no one in 2010.

  • IL abolishes the death penalty

  • Jeffrey Brian Motts executed.

    SC executes Jeffrey Brian Motts by lethal injection for the murder of his cellmate. He is the only person SC executes in 2011. To date, he is the last person executed in SC.

  • SC: Cory Credell is released.

  • No one was sentenced to death in SC in 2011.

  • No executions in SC

  • Edward Lee Elmore is released after nearly 30 years on SC’s Death Row.

    He was given a new trial based on prosecutorial misconduct after evidence appeared that prosecutors had claimed was missing. Testing of the DNA evidence pointed to an unknown white man (Elmore is black).

  • CT abolishes the death penalty

  • Joseph Ard released from prison after 11 years on SC death row.

    Ard was exonerated based on evidence corroborating his position that the shooting of his pregnant girlfriend was accidental.

  • SC executes no one in 2012.

  • Boston Marathon bombing.

    Boston Marathon bombing suspect to be represented by Judy Clarke, a graduate of USC Law.

  • MD abolishes the death penalty

  • No executions so far in 2013

  • Test event

    Testing