James Earl Reed, set to be executed on June 20, has chosen to die by electrocution

James Earl Reed, set to be executed on June 20, has chosen to die by electrocution, the Department of Corrections announced today. Prosecutors said Reed killed Joseph and Barbara Lafayette in their home in 1994. He had confessed to police, but later recanted. No one has been put to death in South Carolina's electric chair since May 28, 2004 (see), when James Neil Tucker was put to death for killing two women 12 years earlier. Under South Carolina law, anyone sentenced to death may choose the electric chair or lethal injection. Reed, 49, would be the 3rd to be electrocuted since the state first offered lethal injection in 1995. 8 other states conduct executions by electrocution. Daryl Keith Holton, in Tennessee, was executed on September 12, 2007(see), and so far  is the last man executed by electric chair in the U.S.