GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a Georgia death row inmate who asked to die by firing squad.
According to WSB-TV, Michael Wade Nance was convicted of shooting and killing Gagor Balogh, 43, in 2002 when he tried to escape after robbing Tucker Federal Savings and Loan. Nance was sentenced to death row.
Nance sued the Georgia prison system, stating that lethal injection could cause him excruciating pain and that his veins are not strong enough to handle the lethal injection, according to WSB-TV. Nance is hoping that a firing squad would be less painful and faster.
Lethal injection is currently the only option for death row inmates in the state of Georgia, WSB-TV said. The Supreme Court ruled in Nance’s favor on Thursday.
“A death row inmate may attempt to show that a State’s planned method of execution, either on its face or as applied to him, violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on ‘cruel and unusual’ punishment,” wrote Justice Elena Kagan in the majority opinion, obtained by WSB-TV.
The next step will be for Nance and his legal team to challenge Georgia’s method of execution via a civil rights lawsuit, according to WSB-TV.
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