November 17, 2020  – On December 4, 2020, South Carolina is set to carry out its first execution in nearly a decade under an unprecedented veil of secrecy in the midst of a global pandemic. The South Carolina Department of Corrections refuses to release any information about how it intends to carry out the execution—from the type and source of lethal injection drugs to the status and testing of the electric chair—creating the risk of a torturous execution with no oversight. Other states, including Texas and Tennessee, have delayed executions during the COVID-19 pandemic to avoid the unnecessary risk of spreading the deadly disease through the many people required to be involved in and witness to an execution. South Carolina should not carry out an execution until these risks are addressed.