The first execution in South Carolina after the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 was that of Joseph Carl Shaw, a former altar boy from Kentucky who enlisted in the Army and was stationed at Fort Jackson.
He raped and murdered two women, Betty Swank and Carlotta Hartness in Richland County, and in 1977 ordered an accomplice, James Terry Roach, to kill Hartness's boyfriend.
The execution took place in 1985 at the Central Correctional Facility using the electric chair. Roach was the second to be executed, in 1986.
Since then, 41 men have been executed, 36 by lethal injection. Seven by electric chair. In all, 25 were white, 25 black, and one Native American. Roach, at 25, was the youngest.
Donald Henry “PeeWee” Gaskins was the oldest at 58 when he was executed in 1991. Known as the meanest man in America, Gaskins was one of the South's most prolific serial killers, including the murder of his niece, a cannibal and sadist who once escaped the death penalty but was later sentenced to death after murdering a fellow inmate on Death Row.
Here is a list of the other murderers who were executed. The list was compiled using information from murderpedia.org and news stories from the time of each execution.
Ronald Rusty Woomer, 35, executed April 27, 1990, killed Della Louis Sellers after abducting her from a Pawleys Island grocery store in 1979. He was convicted of murdering and raping Sellers, but was also charged with killing John Turner, 67; Arnie Richardson, 27; and Earldean Wright, 35; and mutilating the woman who worked with Sellers.
Sylvester Lewis Adams, 39, executed on August 18, 1995, strangled his 16-year-old neighbor in 1979 after attempting to rob him. Adams was the first person to die by lethal injection in South Carolina.
Robert South, 51, was executed on May 31, 1996, for killing West Columbia police officer Daniel Cogburn in a 1983 drive-by shooting after Cogburn had been on the job for four days.
Fred H. Kornahrens III, 47, executed July 19, 1996, killed his ex-wife, Patti Jo Kornahrens, her stepson Jason Avant and her father Harry Wilkerson in 1985 in Charleston County.
Michael Rian Torrence, 35, executed on September 6, 1996, killed Dennis Lollis, Charles Bush and Cynthia Williams in 1987 in Lexington County. He used various forms of strangulation, including a dog chain, and stabbed and shot his victims.
Larry Gene Bell, 46, executed on October 4, 1996, murdered 17-year-old Sharon “Shari” Faye Smith and taunted her parents in phone calls to 9-year-old Debra May Helmick in Lexington County. Bell called Helmick's parents to tell them where her body was. It was believed they had both been suffocated with duct tape.
Doyle Cecil Lucas, 41, executed on November 15, 1996, robbed and murdered Bill Rayfield, 65, and Rayfield's 64-year-old wife Evelyn, in their Rock Hill home in 1983.
Frank Middleton Jr., 33, was executed on Nov. 22, 1996, after escaping from prison and raping and murdering Shirley Mae Mack, a 49-year-old night-shift cook, in 1984. He also killed another woman, Janell Garner, in Charleston County.
Michael Eugene Elkins, 41, executed June 13, 1997, for the July 9, 1990, robbery and murder of Patricia Whitt, 59, of Largo, Florida, after she stopped to help him on Interstate 95 near the Georgia border.
Earl Matthews Jr., 32, executed Nov. 7, 1997, killed 16-year-old Lucia Aimar during a botched 1984 robbery attempt in Charleston County.
John David Arnold Jr., 43, was executed on March 6, 1998, for strangling Betty Gardner to death with a garden hose in Beaufort County in 1978. Arnold, who was white, carved the KKK into the body of Gardner, who was black.
John Herman Plath, 43, was executed on July 10, 1998. He was an accomplice with John David Arnold in the strangulation of Betty Gardner.
Sammy Roberts, 40, was executed on September 25, 1998, for robbing and murdering Bill Spain, Kenneth Krause and Louis Cakley in Berkeley County in 1980.
Larry Gilbert, 43, and accomplice J.D. Gleaton, 53, were both executed on December 4, 1998, for killing gas station owner Ralph Stoudemire in Lexington County.
Louis Joe Truesdale Jr., 40, was executed on December 11, 1980, killing 18-year-old Rebecca Ann Eudy after abducting her from a supermarket parking lot in Lancaster County.
Andrew Lavern Smith, 38, executed on Dec. 18, 1998, repeatedly stabbed husband and wife Christy Johnson, 86, and Corrie Johnson, 82, in Anderson County, where he was renting a home from them. They were cousins of Smith.
Ronnie Howard, 40, executed on January 8, 1999, suffocated Chinh Thi Nguyen Le, a 34-year-old Vietnamese refugee and mother of three, and stole her car in Greenville County. He was on parole for bank robbery at the time of the killing.
Joseph Ernest Atkins, 51, executed on January 22, 1999, killed his father Benjamin Atkins, 75, and a 13-year-old neighbor girl, Karen Patterson, five years after he was paroled for the murder of his brother in North Charleston.
Leroy Joseph Drayton, 44, executed on November 12, 1999, killed 19-year-old Rhonda Darlene Smith, a Charleston County gas station attendant.
David Rocheville, 31, was executed on December 3, 1999, for murdering movie theater workers Alex Hopps and James Todd Green in Spartanburg County in 1991.
Kevin Dean Young, 32, was executed on November 3, 2000. On August 31, 1988, he robbed and shot to death Dennis Ray Hepler, 35, an elementary school principal in Anderson County.
Richard Charles Johnson, 39, executed May 3, 2002, shot and killed Highway Patrol Officer Bruce Smalls during a 1985 traffic stop on I-95 in Jasper County and Daniel Swanson, who picked him up hitchhiking.
Anthony Green, 37, executed Aug. 23, 2002, shot Susan Babich as she walked to her car after shopping at Charles Towne Square Shopping Mall in Charleston in 1987. He then stole her purse.
Michael Joseph Passaro, 40, was executed on September 13, 2002, after dousing the inside of his car with gasoline and setting it on fire while his 2-year-old daughter, Maggie, sat in her car seat outside his wife's Horry County apartment.
David Clayton Hill, 39, executed on March 19, 2004, shot Georgetown Police Officer Spencer Guerry during a traffic stop.
Jerry Bridwell McWee, 51, executed April 16, 2004, shot and killed John Perry, an Aiken County convenience store clerk, during a robbery. McWee was awarded $350. Jason Scott Byram, 38, executed April 23, 2004, broke into and stabbed special education teacher Julie Johnson in her Columbia home while her husband and children slept upstairs.
James Neil Tucker, 47, was executed on May 28, 2004, killing Rosa Lee Dolly Oakley and Shannon Mellon in search of money.
Richard Longworth, 36, an accomplice of David Rocheville, was executed on April 15, 2005 in the deaths of movie theater workers Alex Hopps and James Todd Green.
Hastings Arthur Wise, 51, executed Nov. 4, 2005, murdered former co-workers David Moore, 30; Esther Sheryl Wood, 27; Charles Griffith, 50; and Ernest L. Filyaw, 31, at the Aiken Lawn Mower Ignition Plant in 1997.
Shawn Paul Humphries, 33, executed on December 2, 2005, shot Dickie Smith at the Max-Saver supermarket in Greenville County.
William Ernest Downs Jr., 39, executed July 14, 2006, for strangling 6-year-old Keenan O'Mailia as he rode his bicycle near Downs' Aiken home. Calvin Alphonso Shuler, 40, executed June 22, 2007, fatally shot armored car driver James Brooks in Dorchester County in 1997.
David Mark Hill, 48, executed June 6, 2008, shot and killed his family's social worker and two other employees after losing custody of his children at the Aiken County Department of Social Services office in North Augusta. James Riddle, Josie Curry and Michael Gregory were killed.
James Earl Reed, 49, executed June 20, 2008, shot his ex-girlfriend's parents, Barbara Lafayette and Joseph Lafayette, to death in Charleston County.
Joseph Martin Luther Gardner, 38, was executed on December 5, 2008, after torturing and shooting 25-year-old Melissa McLauchlin, a stranger who was picked up as she walked along a Dorchester County road.
Luke A. Williams, 56, was executed on February 20, 2009. He beat, strangled and set fire to his wife, Linda Williams, and their 12-year-old son, Shaun Williams, in Edgefield County in 1991 to collect insurance money.
Thomas Treshawn Ivey, 34, executed on May 8, 2009, after escaping from an Alabama prison, Ivey stole a truck and drove to Columbia, where he and an accomplice kidnapped businessman Robert Montgomery. Ivey shot Montgomery in the head and chest, causing his body to be discovered by hunters. Two days later, in Orangeburg, Ivey shot Orangeburg Police Sergeant Tommy Harrison five times.
Jeffrey Brian Motts, 36, executed May 6, 2011, strangled his Perry Correctional Institution cellmate Charles “Chuck” Martin in 2005. Motts was serving a life sentence for the 1995 double murder of 79-year-old Clyde Camby and his 73-year-old great-uncle Etta Osteen.
