Brad Sigmon, a 67-year-old death row inmate in South Carolina, is set to be executed by firing squad on Friday evening, marking the first such execution in the United States since 2010.
Unless granted a last-minute reprieve by the governor or the US Supreme Court, Sigmon will be the fourth person in nearly five decades to be executed by this method.
Sigmon was convicted for the 2001 murders of his ex-girlfriend’s parents, David and Gladys Larke, whom he brutally beat to death with a baseball bat after his former partner refused to reconcile with him.
As per the news agency AP, he later kidnapped his ex-girlfriend at gunpoint, but she managed to escape. He admitted his guilt at trial.
With South Carolina struggling to secure lethal injection drugs, Sigmon was given a choice between execution methods—lethal injection, the electric chair, or firing squad. He chose the latter, fearing the electric chair would “cook him alive” and expressing concerns over the state’s secretive lethal injection process, which he believed could lead to a painful death.
His lawyers have argued that all available options were inhumane.
Inside the execution chamber
According to AP, Sigmon will be taken to the execution chamber, where he will be strapped into a chair, and a target will be placed over his heart. Three riflemen, positioned 15 feet away, will fire simultaneously using 0.308-caliber bullets designed to shatter on impact, aiming for an instant death. Witnesses, including reporters and the victims’ family members, will watch from behind newly installed bullet-resistant glass.
This execution method has a long history, used in military justice and totalitarian regimes, but has recently been defended as a quicker and possibly less painful alternative to lethal injection or electrocution.
Sigmon’s legal team has urged the US Supreme Court to delay the execution, arguing that South Carolina’s lethal injection secrecy violates constitutional protections. They have also appealed to Republican governor Henry McMaster for clemency, highlighting Sigmon’s rehabilitation and remorse over the years.
As per AFP, South Carolina introduced the firing squad option in 2021 after failing to obtain lethal injection drugs. It is now one of five states, alongside Utah, Idaho, Mississippi, and Oklahoma, that authorize firing squads.
The execution is expected to take place Friday at 6 pm (local time). If carried out, Sigmon’s case may set a precedent for future executions in the state, where two more inmates are awaiting their sentences under the same choices of execution.
