South Carolina Executes Inmate by Firing Squad, First in 15 Years

South Carolina executed death row inmate Brad Sigmon by firing squad on Friday, marking the first use of the method in the United States in 15 years.

Sigmon, 67, was convicted for the 2001 murders of his ex-girlfriend’s parents, whom he bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat in their home. His attack was part of a failed plan to kidnap their daughter, whom he intended to take on a trip before carrying out a murder-suicide.

A judge ordered Sigmon to choose between lethal injection, electrocution, or a firing squad. His attorney stated that Sigmon feared the electric chair would “cook him alive” and that lethal injection could cause him to drown in his own fluids, leading him to select the firing squad.

Sigmon became the first South Carolina inmate to be executed by firing squad. The last U.S. execution by this method occurred in Utah in 2010.

The execution was carried out by three volunteer prison employees who fired their rifles through openings in a wall 15 feet away. Sigmon, dressed in a black jumpsuit with a hood over his head, had a white target with a red bullseye placed over his chest. Reporters who witnessed the execution described him taking deep breaths in the moments before the shots were fired. A doctor pronounced him dead minutes later.

South Carolina had suspended executions for 13 years due to difficulties obtaining lethal injection drugs. The state Supreme Court resumed the death penalty last July, leading to four executions in eight months.

With 28 inmates still on death row, South Carolina courts have now approved executions to take place every five weeks.