South Carolina set to execute prisoner in state’s first firing squad execution

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina man convicted in a 2002 double murder is set to die Friday by firing squad, a rarely used execution method never before carried out by the state.

Barring a last-minute reprieve from the governor’s office or the U.S. Supreme Court, Brad Sigmon’s execution is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. Sigmon, 67, would be the oldest inmate executed by the state.

His lawyer, Gerald “Bo” King, has requested clemency from Gov. Henry McMaster, arguing Sigmon has transformed his life in prison, rededicated himself to his Christian faith and poses no further danger while incarcerated.

“The man Brad is today does not deserve execution,” King said Thursday.

McMaster, a Republican, signed a bill in 2021 that legalized the firing squad and requires condemned inmates to choose between it, lethal injection or the state’s primary execution method of electrocution. His office declined to comment.

Sigmon chose a firing squad after concerns were raised about previous lethal injection executions in South Carolina. Inmates required twice the dose of pentobarbital, and one inmate “died with his lungs massively swollen with blood and fluid,” akin to “drowning,” according to an autopsy report cited in court documents filed by the defense last month.

State prosecutors responded that Sigmon “waived any argument about lethal injection” since he chose to die by firing squad.

King said Sigmon has admitted his guilt and “accepted that he deserves punishment” but added that “he’s been asked to make this choice as to how he’s going to die” with only basic knowledge of each protocol.

South Carolina restarted executions in September after a 13-year pause caused by the state’s inability to procure lethal injection drugs. A shield law allows officials to publicly withhold details surrounding where the state sources its current supply of pentobarbital.

Richard “Dick” Harpootlian, a former prosecutor who handled death penalty cases, introduced the firing squad proposal when he served in the state Legislature in 2021. He said he “wrestled” with pushing for the method but found it “less barbaric” than the electric chair.

“I don’t relish the idea of somebody being shot to death, but if they’re going to die, this is an alternative,” Harpootlian said.

The state has released some details about how it plans to carry out the firing squad execution; the last one occurred in 2010 in Utah, the only state that has used the firing squad since the Supreme Court ruled the death penalty constitutional in 1976.

In South Carolina, three Department of Corrections employees will make up the volunteer squad, officials said. They will fire rifles, each one loaded with live ammunition, from behind a wall about 15 feet from the inmate, who will be seated.

Before the shooting, the inmate will be allowed to make a last statement, then a hood will be placed over his head and a target pinned over his heart. Bullet-resistant glass separates the execution chamber from another room where witnesses, including media, will be permitted.

“I don’t know what they have done or how they have trained to prepare to shoot another person from 15 feet away in the heart,” King said. “It’s easier to think of ways that it could go wrong than to feel confident it will go right.”

Deborah Denno, a professor at Fordham Law School who studies the death penalty, said execution by firing squad remains one of the “least inhumane” options compared to other methods, including lethal injection and nitrogen gas, given how quickly someone can die after being shot in the heart.

Its return hearkens back to other periods in American history when firing squads were more common, such as the colonial era and the Civil War, when it was used against deserters.

“Even though [a firing squad] was used in our very first execution in 1608, we’ve never had this many states adopt statutorily the firing squad until now,” Denno said, adding that a bill in Idaho would make it the primary execution method.

Witnesses to Utah’s last firing squad execution recently recalled to NBC News the sound of rapid gunfire in the chamber and how the inmate, Ronnie Lee Gardner, appeared to flinch and move his arm after being shot. A corrections department spokeswoman said the agency offers mental health support for staff taking part in executions.

Sigmon was found guilty in the beating deaths of his ex-girlfriend’s parents, William David Larke, 62, and Gladys Gwendolyn Larke, 59. Prosecutors say Sigmon used a baseball bat to attack the couple in their Greenville County home, and then abducted his ex-girlfriend, who managed to escape from his car. Sigmon fled and was captured in Tennessee after a multiday manhunt.

In his request for his execution to be halted, his defense lawyers said the jury at his trial was not told about his history of mental illness, including bipolar disorder, and his “traumatic and abusive childhood,” underscoring claims of ineffective legal counsel.

The South Carolina Supreme Court had previously rejected Sigmon’s request to stop his execution and did so again on Tuesday, finding that such mitigating evidence “would not have influenced the jury’s appraisal of Sigmon’s culpability.”

Abigail Brooks reported from Columbia and Erik Ortiz from New York.