South Carolina Death Row Inmate Becomes First to Face Execution by Firing Squad in 15 Years
On Friday, the Supreme Court issued a concise order rejecting Brad Sigmon’s bid to postpone his execution.
At 67, Brad Sigmon from South Carolina has become the first U.S. inmate to be executed via firing squad in 15 years.
He was declared dead at 6:08 p.m. on Friday, shortly after three volunteer prison staff executed him with rifles.
Sigmon faced the death penalty after he confessed to murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat in 2001. His attempt to kidnap her went tragically wrong after she refused to reconcile with him. He informed the authorities that he intended to take her on a romantic weekend and then kill both her and himself.
During the execution, Sigmon was seated in the prison’s death chamber, clad in a black jumpsuit with a hood covering his head and a target affixed to his chest.
He opted for the firing squad over lethal injection and the electric chair.
Sigmon had requested the court to examine whether South Carolina had infringed upon his due process rights by concealing information regarding its lethal injections and compelling him to select an execution method under a “compressed timeline.”
Specifically, he challenged whether the state denied him due process by preventing an informed choice about which execution method was less inhumane.
His brief argued that the situation made it impossible for Sigmon to evaluate which method was more inhumane; to avoid the electric chair, he chose the firing squad.
Volunteers shot simultaneously through openings in the wall, positioned 15 feet away—the same distance from the free-throw line to the backboard on a basketball court.
Approximately a dozen witnesses watched behind bullet-resistant glass as Sigmon absorbed the bullets and took his last breath; the shooters were not visible to them. Among the witnesses were three family members of his victims.
In his final statement, Sigmon urged his “fellow Christians” to advocate for the abolition of the death penalty.
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster rejected a request to commute Sigmon’s sentence, and on March 7, the Supreme Court issued a brief order denying Sigmon’s request to stay the execution.
Prior Appeals
The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling followed the South Carolina Supreme Court’s earlier rejection of Sigmon’s appeal earlier this week. It noted that Sigmon failed to demonstrate “exceptional circumstances warranting the issuance of a stay [of execution].”
“Since Sigmon will not be executed by lethal injection, he lacks standing to pursue his claim here, which is based on a demand for further information about lethal injection drugs,” Wilson’s brief stated.
Sigmon contended that requiring additional information would secure his right to elect the method of execution. His brief suggested that the Department of Corrections (SCDC) should “disclose the beyond-use or expiration date of its drugs, the type and results of the tests performed on them, and their storage conditions.”
It highlighted that “any issues regarding the reliability and effectiveness of the drugs themselves would inevitably come to light and could be resolved.”
His brief to the court raised concerns about South Carolina’s execution procedures, noting that three inmates executed in 2024 weren’t declared dead until at least 20 minutes after the process commenced.
A declaration from Dr. David B. Waisel, an anesthesiologist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, remarked that “a properly administered dose of effective pentobarbital should halt breathing within a minute,” suggesting that delays indicate a “problem of some kind occurred.”
Wilson countered that Sigmon’s worries regarding prior executions were “without merit.”
“We also understand that lethal injection often necessitates over ten minutes for an inmate to be pronounced dead,” he stated. He further remarked that a “second round of pentobarbital does not suggest that there are any issues with the drug or its administration. Instead, it simply follows SCDC’s protocol when all electrical activity has not ceased within ten minutes.”
Executions in South Carolina, Utah
Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States in 1976, 46 other prisoners have been executed in South Carolina, with seven executed by electric chair and 39 by lethal injection.
The state observed a 13-year hiatus in the practice starting in the early 2000s. Sigmon became the third inmate to receive the death penalty after that break ended last July, following Freddie Owens on September 20, 2024, Richard Moore on November 1, 2024, and Marion Bowman, Jr. on January 31.
Since 1977, only three other prisoners in the United States have been executed by firing squad, all occurring in Utah. Ronnie Lee Gardner was the last to experience execution by firing squad, in 2010.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
