South Carolina Set to Carry Out First Firing Squad Execution of Prisoner

A man convicted of committing a double murder will be executed by a firing squad in the US at 6:00 PM local time on Friday. This execution method has not been used in the country for 15 years and has never before been used in South Carolina.

In 2001, Brad Sigmon, 67, was convicted of murdering his girlfriend’s parents. He chose the firing squad method for his execution over the other two death penalty methods, the electric chair and lethal injection.

After killing the two individuals, he kidnapped his girlfriend at gunpoint. She was able to escape. Sigmon’s lawyers say that he faced “an impossible decision between barbaric methods of execution.”

Sigmon will be the first person executed by firing squad in the US in 15 years

In a statement, Sigmon’s lawyers said, “Unless he chose lethal injection or the firing squad, he would die in South Carolina’s old electric chair, which would burn and cook him alive. But the alternative is equally monstrous.”

Additionally, the lawyers explained that if he chose the lethal injection, he risked prolonged suffering. This is what happened to the three men who were executed in South Carolina since September 2024.

BREAKING Execution by firing squad scheduled for Friday 3/7/25 at 6pm in Columbia, SC. Brad Sigmon will be strapped into chair in same death chamber used for all SC executions.

A target will be placed over his heart and hood over his head. 3 shooters (identities secret)… pic.twitter.com/4Qh84L6FFW

— The General (@1776General_) March 7, 2025

His lawyers said, “The only option left was the firing squad. Brad has no illusions about what it means to be shot. He doesn’t want to inflict that pain on his family, on the witnesses, or the execution team. But, given South Carolina’s unnecessary and inconceivable secrecy, Brad is choosing the best he can.”

If Sigmon is executed, he will become the oldest person to be executed by the State of South Carolina.

Sigmon´s lawyers submitted a petition for executive clemency

So far, Republican Governor Henry McMaster has not answered Sigmon’s lawyers’ petition for executive clemency. They asked to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The defense said in a press release, “Sigmon committed his crimes and was tried while he was trapped by an undiagnosed hereditary mental illness.”

Sigmon’s attorneys asked the Supreme Court judges for a stay in his execution. Additionally, they asked the high court to consider whether South Carolina’s compressed election schedule and the arbitrary denial of information related to the South Carolina Department of Corrections’ lethal injection drugs violate due process.

South Carolina is set to execute Brad Sigmon by firing squad on Friday, marking the first use of the controversial method in the United States in 15 years. The execution has reignited debates over whether death by gunfire is a more humane alternative to lethal injection or… pic.twitter.com/6v5VQfipqm

— Newsweek (@Newsweek) March 6, 2025

They have argued that they attempted to gain more information on the medicine used during the lethal injection process but have been blocked in every instance. According to South Carolina’s correctional department, a sealed copy of the lethal injection protocols was handed to Sigmon’s lawyers.