South Carolina officials may soon force death-row inmates to decide if they want to be executed by lethal injection, electric char or a firing squad

• South Carolina's Senate passed a bill that would add firing squads as alternative execution methods.
• The bill still has to be passed in the House of Representatives.
• South Carolina has faced a lethal injection drug shortage in recent years.

South Carolina's Senate passed a bill on Tuesday that could add using a firing squad as an alternative execution method for prison inmates on death row.

The new bill, which will go to the House of Representatives for consideration, would force death row inmates to choose one of three ways to die: lethal injection, electrocution, or firing squad, The Washington Post reported.

At the moment, death row inmates can choose between dying by lethal injection or electric chair.

But a shortage of lethal injection drugs has delayed executions because officials can't force people who chose lethal injection to be killed through electrocution.

Additionally, South Carolina cannot put any more people on death row because its supply of lethal-injection drugs has expired, and the state has not been able to buy a new supply, according to the Associated Press.

If lethal-injection drugs remain unavailable and the Senate bill becomes law, inmates will then have to choose between dying by firing squad or electric chair.

South Carolina is one of 28 states where the death penalty is legal.

It currently has 37 inmates on death row, though the state has not conducted an execution in nearly 10 years, The Hill reported.

Advocates for the new bill say adding the option of firing squads could allow executions to continue, and could bring closure to victims' families.

People against the bill have pointed out the racial disparities in the death penalty, saying there are disproportionately more Black people than white people facing execution.

"My question is if we adopt this, do we have that same kind of pattern where African Americans that are on death row receive it more often than others?" Sen. Karl Allen (D) said of the bill, according to The Post.

Other states, meanwhile, are moving away from the penalty, and Virginia last month became the latest state to eliminate capital punishment.