South Carolina uses firing squad to execute man convicted of double murder
South Carolina is set to execute death row inmate Brad Sigmon by firing squad on Friday. Photo courtesy South Carolina Department of Corrections
For the first time in 15 years, a state has put a person to death by firing squad.
Late Friday, South Carolina used a firing squad to execute a man convicted of double murder. It was the first time the state has ever used that method to carry out the death penalty. Advertisement
It was the first execution of its kind in the United States in 15 years, CNN reported.
Brad Sigmon, 67, was convicted of fatally bludgeoning David and Gladys Larke in 2001, and chose the method of execution over the other state-approved methods of the electric chair or lethal injection.
He was pronounced dead by a physician at 6:08 p.m. EST, South Carolina corrections officials said at a news conference Friday.
It was the fourth firing squad execution in the United States since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Sigmon’s attorneys said their client chose the firing squad rather than take an unreliable execution drug or die by the electric chair, calling that method “ancient” and that it “would burn and cook him alive.” Gerald “Bo” King, one of Sigmon’s lawyers, further added that the use of a firing squad as an alternative “is just as monstrous.” Advertisement
Sigmon, who admitted his guilt in court, was convicted for beating a couple — his ex-girlfriend’s parents — to death with a baseball bat. He also kidnapped his ex, but she managed to escape by jumping out of his car. Despite that, he shot her in the foot.
A petition for executive clemency, filed with the governor was denied. It asked the U.S. Supreme Court to “consider whether South Carolina’s compressed election timeline and arbitrary denial of information relating to the South Carolina Department of Corrections lethal injection drugs violate Due Process.”
At age 67, Sigmon was the oldest person to ever be executed by South Carolina.
