GREENVILLE — A South Carolina death row inmate convicted of killing two law enforcement officers in Abbeville is competent to be put to death, a judge has ruled.

As the state continues executions after a 13-year hiatus , Steven Bixby’s attorneys argued in March he was mentally unfit in an effort to spare him from the death chamber.

Bixby, aided by his parents Arthur and Rita, shot and killed Abbeville County Deputy Danny Wilson and Constable Donnie Ouzts in 2003 .

He killed the two officers amid an ongoing dispute with the state Department of Transportation, which was planning to take a strip of his family’s property through eminent domain to widen S.C. Highway 72. The killings sparked a standoff of more than 12 hours during which Bixby exchanged thousands of rounds with police befor

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