James Earl Reed Executed.

Update

James Earl Reed was pronounced dead at 23:27 hrs. Reed was the first person executed in the electric chair in the U.S. in nearly a year and South Carolina’s first since 2004.

Reed gave no final statement.

The execution, first scheduled for 6 p.m., had been put on hold as defense attorneys successfully obtained a stay from a federal judge, only to see it vacated by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Their attempt to get the U.S. Supreme Court to block the execution was subsequently denied.

In South Carolina, anyone sentenced to death may choose the electric chair or lethal injection. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, eight other states electrocute inmates.

In the request for the stay that was granted Friday, the defense attorneys cited a U.S. Supreme Court decision made the day before regarding defendants' rights to represent themselves. The high court on Thursday said a defendant can be judged competent to stand trial, yet incapable of acting as his own lawyer.



James Earl Reed's final ride out of prison. May God have mercy on his soul.