A bill filed in the Florida state Senate would expand the methods by which death row inmates could be executed. 

Senate Bill 1604, put forward by state Sen. Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, is designed to maintain Florida’s standing as a death penalty state. This measure becomes crucial if the Supreme Court or Florida Supreme Court rules execution methods such as electrocution or lethal injection as unconstitutional or if there are future challenges in acquiring drugs necessary for lethal injections.

Currently, there is a scarcity of pentobarbital, a drug essential for lethal injections, leading several states to seek out different execution methodologies.

In March, South Carolina’s death row inmate Brad Sigmon was executed by firing squad, marking the first use of this execution method in the United States in over 15 years.

Brad Sigmon was convicted of beating to death his estranged girlfriend’s parents in Greenville County in 2001. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP)

Lethal injection is by far the most popular execution method, accounting for 1,431 of all executions since 1976. Electrocution is second, accounting for 163.