A historic shift in execution methods unfolded in South Carolina as the state carried out its first firing squad execution in modern times. Brad Sigmon, 67, became the first person in the United States to face this method of capital punishment in 15 years, marking a significant moment in the ongoing debate about execution practices.
Details of the execution
Three volunteer prison employees executed Sigmon at 6:08 p.m. on Friday, using rifles from a distance of 15 feet. Sigmon, dressed in a black jumpsuit with a hood and wearing a white target with a red bullseye on his chest, made several heavy breaths during the procedure. The execution took place in the state’s death chamber, with witnesses observing through bullet-resistant glass.
Before his death, Sigmon delivered a final statement focused on “love and a calling to my fellow Christians to help us end the death penalty.” The execution was witnessed by victims’ family members, Sigmon’s attorney, his spiritual advisor, legal representatives, and media members.
The crime and legal proceedings
Sigmon was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents in their Greenville County home in 2001. He had attacked them with a baseball bat as part of a failed plan to kidnap their daughter, later telling police he intended to take her for a romantic weekend before killing both her and himself.
His legal team chose the firing squad method over other options, arguing that the electric chair would “cook him alive” and expressing concerns about potential drowning effects from lethal injection. A last-minute appeal to the state Supreme Court regarding South Carolina’s secretive lethal injection protocols proved unsuccessful.
South Carolina’s execution landscape
The state has executed 46 prisoners since capital punishment resumed in 1976, with seven by electric chair and 39 by lethal injection. After a 13-year pause in executions due to difficulties obtaining lethal injection drugs, South Carolina resumed capital punishment in July. The state currently has 28 inmates on death row, with two awaiting execution this spring.
Despite concerns raised by Sigmon’s supporters about his mental health and model prisoner behavior, Governor Henry McMaster denied clemency – continuing a pattern where no South Carolina governor has ever commuted a death sentence. The state Supreme Court has established a schedule allowing for an execution every five weeks moving forward.
Historical context of firing squads
The firing squad has a complex history in the United States and globally, having been used for military discipline, frontier justice, and political oppression. Since 1977, only three other U.S. prisoners have been executed by firing squad, all in Utah. The most recent was Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010.
