South Carolina carried out its first firing squad execution in over a decade on Friday, putting to death 67-year-old Brad Sigmon, a convicted murderer who opted for the controversial method over the electric chair or lethal injection.
Strapped to a chair in a steel basin with a hood over his head and a target on his chest, Sigmon was shot by three executioners standing 15 feet away. Witnesses described a brief, jarring moment—no warning before the gunfire, a quick intake of breath, and then stillness. He was pronounced dead at 6:08 p.m.
Sigmon had been on death row since 2001 for brutally killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat. In his final statement, read by his attorney, he called on fellow Christians to work toward abolishing capital punishment.
His execution marked the first time a firing squad had been used in the U.S. since 2010 and only the fourth instance since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. South Carolina turned to this method due to ongoing challenges in obtaining lethal injection drugs, a problem driven in part by pharmaceutical restrictions on their use for capital punishment.
With lethal injection now frequently plagued by failed procedures and prolonged deaths, some states are reviving alternative execution methods once thought to belong to history.
