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Judge issues ruling against South Carolina inmates working to stop execution

The move means at this point, the executions of two men will take place later this month.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina judge has denied a motion to stop the state's updated execution law from going into effect, meaning two inmates' executions are still scheduled to take place in the coming weeks. 

Circuit Court Judge Jocelyn Newman issued her ruling late Tuesday afternoon. 

She'd been asked by two death row inmates---Brad Sigmon and Freddie Owens--to issue an injunction stopping a new election law from taking effect. The law, passed this year, forces inmates up for execution to choose between either electrocution or firing squad.  Sigmon is scheduled to be executed on June 18, while is set to die on June 25.

RELATED: Second South Carolina inmate seeking to block electrocution

Attorneys for the two men set to die say the law is unconstitutional because their clients were sentenced under the old law that made lethal injection the default execution method. They also said the other methods are less humane. 

RELATED: South Carolina schedules execution date for inmate, could be first in 10 years

The state of South Carolina argues they are working to carry out executions under the methods available at the time. 

But in her ruling, Newman said the inmates have "little likelihood of success on the merits of their claim" and did not stop the law. 

Walter Bailey from the South Carolina Bar Association says this is not a final order. He says the defendants attorneys could appeal and there could be further proceedings between now and the execution date.

"The defendants attorneys are claiming that the change in the law is as to whether or not you can select lethal injection, has created a situation where they've been denied their rights retroactively," said Mr. Bailey.

Attorneys for Sigmon and Owens say the law is unconstitutional because their clients were sentenced under the old law, and choose lethal injection as their execution method. 

Bailey disagrees, he says, "The written order for the death penalty… would say the person sentenced to death by lethal injection or electric chair as the law provides. The issue is whether or not the phrase "as the law provides" as provided at the time of sentence or at the time of execution." 

A prosecutor for 30 years, Bailey prosecuted over 13 death penalty cases. He says, "All that's being denied is having a convicted murder not having the privilege of choosing the way he dies. I have prosecuted a lot of cases, murder cases, and I am yet to see a victim that was given a choice on how they died."

University of South Carolina Criminal Justice Professor Hayden Smith says we're much closer to the reality of this happening. He says correctional staff will begin, "Drills for the staff going over procedures and certain requirements for the inmate themselves."

"The staff will go through a mock procedure, they'll follow the details of how the inmate will be transported depending of course on the method of execution, which staff members will be involved, who's responsible for each aspect of the capital punishment."

Smith says as the execution date gets closer, the death row inmates will be isolated and placed on suicide watch.

Currently, the corrections department has not set up procedures for a firing squad, which means the inmates' only option is the electric chair. 

This is one of several legal efforts to stop the executions by the two men. They've also got a date in federal court Wednesday. 

The death penalty has been legal in South Carolina during the whole time they've been on death row but no inmate has been executed since 2011. That was because of an inability by the state to get the drugs necessary to execute inmates by lethal injection.  

But the South Carolina General Assembly passed a new law earlier this year that aimed to bypass that problem by making inmates choose between the options of death by the electric chair or firing squad. Gov. Henry McMaster signed the measure into law, saying it's necessary to give families justice.

Death penalty opponents say both methods of killing are inhumane. 

The corrections department's website says 284 executions have been carried out by the state since 1912.

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