State And Federal Info
Serial killer Donald Henry “Pee Wee” Gaskins, Jr., who grew up in an extremely violent household, attempted his first murder at the age of 13. He claimed to have killed many other people, but law enforcement authorities could not verify all those claims. In his autobiography, Gaskins said he had “a special mind” that gave him “permission to kill.” (Wikipedia). He was executed in the electric chair in 1991.
Susan Smith was convicted of murdering her two young sons by restraining them in their car seats and driving the car into a lake. She initially claimed that two African-American men had kidnapped her sons, but soon admitted to their murder. She was represented by prominent death penalty attorneys, who brought out facts about abuse she had suffered from her stepfather. Although the state asked for the death penalty, jurors returned a verdict of life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Michael Linder was sentenced to death in 1975 for killing a highway patrol officer. He was later found to have killed the officer in self defense and was acquitted in 1981.
Warren Douglas Manning was convicted in 1989 of murdering a police officer. The conviction relied entirely on circumstantial evidence, and Manning was acquitted in 1999.
Herbert Fielding introduced a bill to abolish the death penalty during every legislative session he spent in the South Carolina legislature. None of the bills passed either chamber, but during his tenure (1970-1973 and 1983-1992) the bills kept the issue alive in the minds of South Carolina legislators.
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, bills to expand the use of the death penalty were introduced during nearly every legislative session, but were not passed. In 2021, after the state reached ten years without an execution because of the Department of Corrections’ inability to obtain lethal injection drugs, the state legislature passed a bill to allow executions by electric chair or firing squad, making the electric chair the default method of execution.
Historical data on executions in South Carolina reflects the state’s centuries-long discriminatory application of the death penalty against African Americans. Black men, women, and children comprised 78.5% of the people executed in South Carolina in the 20th century. Three-quarters of those executed for murder in the 20th century were people of color, and 74.5% were Black.
When it came to offenses in which no one died, the link between executions and lynchings in South Carolina is undeniable. Black men accused of sexual indiscretions with white women were frequent victims of lynching. For most of the 20th century, South Carolina permitted the death penalty for rape and attempted rape but employed it almost exclusively against Black men. 92.4% of those executed for rape or attempted rape were Black. 87.8% of those executed for rape were Black, and only Black men or boys were executed for attempted rape.
| Decade | Total Executions |
Murder |
Rape |
Attempted Rape |
||||||||
| W | B | All | W | B | All | W | B | All | W | B | All | |
| 1900-1909 | 4 | 26 | 30 | 4 | 21 | 25 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1910-1919 | 3 | 49 | 52 | 3 | 31 | 34 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 13 | 13 |
| 1920-1929 | 8 | 28 | 36 | 8 | 23 | 31 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 1930-1939 | 18 | 50 | 68 | 18 | 44 | 62 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 1940-1949 | 9 | 50 | 59 | 5* | 30 | 35 | 4 | 12 | 16 | 0 | 8 | 8 |
| 1950-1959 | 5 | 20 | 25 | 5 | 16 | 21 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1960-1969 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 1970-1979 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1980-1989 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1990-1999 | 13 | 9 | 22 | 12 | 9 | 22^ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 65 | 237 | 302 | 55 | 176 | 236 | 5 | 36 | 41 | 0 | 25 | 25 |
* Includes 2 white men and 1 white woman who were executed in 1943 for conspiracy to commit murder.
^Includes 1 Native American man who was executed in 1999.
Sources: For executions between 1900 and 1972 — Executions in the U.S. 1608-2002: The ESPY File, Executions by State. For executions between 1972 and 1999 — Death Penalty Information Center, Execution Database.
New Voices
May 20, 2022
After 37 years of silence, a South Carolina prison doctor who was in the execution chamber when eight prisoners it was his duty to treat were put to death has for the first time publicly discussed his conflicting roles. I…
Methods of Execution
Apr 26, 2022
The South Carolina Supreme Court has halted two scheduled executions, including one that would have been the state’s first execution by firing squad, amid ongoing legal challenges by state death-row prisoners to the state’s execut…
Methods of Execution
Apr 06, 2022
Lawyers for three men on South Carolina’s death row have asked the state supreme court to defer setting execution dates until the courts resolve pending legal challenges to the state’s controversial execution methods. The…
Methods of Execution
Mar 21, 2022
South Carolina has completed preparations to execute the state’s death-row prisoners by firing squad. In a
Methods of Execution
Dec 08, 2021
As South Carolina prepares procedures for carrying out executions via firing squad, an investigation by Columbia’s daily newspaper, The State, reports that important information about the execution process and the sources of materials to …
New Voices
Nov 12, 2021
South Carolina correctional staff who participated in executions suffered life-altering trauma that was worsened by an inflexible prison administration that provided little support to address the psychological injuries they sustained. Two senior s…
Capital Case Development
Sep 24, 2021
In a one-page order on September 24, 2021, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit denied federal death-row prisoner Dylann Roof’s motion seeking to reargue his appeal in front of the full circuit. On August 25…
Mental Illness
Aug 26, 2021
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has affirmed Dylann Roof’s federal-court convictions and death sentences for the racially motivated murders of nine parishioners in an historic Charleston, South Carolina
Methods of Execution
Jun 17, 2021
The South Carolina Supreme Court has vacated death warrants for two death-row prisoners scheduled to be executed this month, staying their executions until the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDOC) complies with a newly…
Mental Illness
May 27, 2021
Lawyers for federal death row prisoner Dylann Roof argued to a federal appeals court that the avowed white supremacist’s convictions and death sentences in his trial for the 2015 murders of nine Black churchgoers at Emanuel Africa…
