COLUMBIA, SC (AP) — The South Carolina Supreme Court has not set a date for the state the next execution after lawyers for four inmates on appeal asked them to delay the deaths until after Christmas and New Year’s.

Judges typically issue notices on Fridays, as they allow a maximum of 28 days to prepare for execution, which, according to the law, is to be carried out on “the fourth Friday after receipt of such notice”.

The Supreme Court also promised in August to delay the executions five week intervals to allow prison staff and defense attorneys, who often represent multiple convicted inmates, time to deal with all necessary legal matters. This includes ensuring that lethal injection drugs, as well as the electric chair and firing squad are ready, and researching and filing last-minute appeals.

South Carolina’s death chamber has been delayed by a 13-year hiatus in executions, in part because the state could not obtain the drugs needed to perform lethal injections until the General Assembly passed a law that preserves his name. supplier secret.

Six inmates remained without appeals during that time. Two have been executed and four await their fate.

The judges could have issued a death warrant last Friday for Marion Bowman Jr., which would have taken place on December 6th.

But the day passed with no word from the Supreme Court, including what the justices thought of the inmates’ request last Tuesday to take a break from executions until early January.

“Six consecutive executions with virtually no respite will take a substantial toll on everyone involved, especially at a time of year that is so important to families,” attorneys for the inmates wrote in court filings.

State attorneys responded that prison officials were ready to stick to the original schedule and the state had carried out executions around the Christmas and New Year’s holidays before, including five between December 4, 1998, and January 8, 1999.

Bowman, 44, was convicted of murder in the 2001 shooting death of friend Kandee Martin, 21, whose burned body was found in the trunk of her car in Dorchester County. he spent more than half of his life on death row.

Bowman would be the third inmate executed since September after the state obtained the drug it needed to carry out the death penalty. Freddie Owens was put to death by lethal injection September 20 and Richard Moore was executed on November 1

South Carolina was among the busiest states for executions at the time, but that stopped once the state had difficulty obtaining lethal injection drugs because of drug companies’ concerns that they would have to disclose that they sold the drugs to officials.

The state Legislature has since passed a law allowing officials to keep the suppliers of lethal injection drugs secret, and in July the state Supreme Court cleared the way to restart executions.

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