South Carolina Prepares for First Firing Squad Execution in 15 Years
South Carolina is set to execute 67-year-old Brad Sigmon by firing squad on Friday, marking the first time in 15 years this method has been used in the U.S. Sigmon, convicted in 2001 of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat, was given the choice between lethal injection, electrocution, or the firing squad. Expressing concerns about the state’s lethal injection process and the brutality of electrocution, he opted for death by gunfire.
At 6 p.m. local time, Sigmon will be led into the execution chamber at Broad River Correctional Institution, where he will be strapped to a metal chair and have a target placed over his heart. A hood will then be placed over his head before three trained volunteers fire simultaneously from 15 feet away. The ammunition, designed to fragment on impact, is intended to cause almost immediate death by destroying the heart. Witnesses, including members of the victims' family, will watch from behind bullet-resistant glass. However, the three volunteers firing the guns will be hidden from the witnesses by a curtain to protect their identities. The process is expected to take approximately five minutes.
The state revived the firing squad option in 2021 due to difficulties obtaining lethal injection drugs after their supply ran out at the start of the decade. No companies would see more of the drugs apart from if they were anonymous, which wasn’t allowed at the time. While Utah is the only state to have used a firing squad in modern times, South Carolina now joins Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Idaho in allowing it as an alternative. Critics argue the practice is outdated and barbaric, but some proponents, including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, have suggested it may be more humane than other methods.
Sigmon’s attorneys have made last-minute appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court and South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, arguing that he suffers from severe mental illness and has been a model prisoner. However, no South Carolina governor has granted clemency in a death penalty case since 1976. If the execution proceeds as scheduled, Sigmon will be the 47th person executed in the state since the death penalty was reinstated.
