By Hannah Parry
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South Carolina has executed Brad Sigmon by firing squad, marking the first ever use of the controversial method in the state, and its first use in the United States in 15 years.
Sigmon used his final words to call upon fellow Christians to help end the death penalty, according to media witnesses.
Sigmon selected the state's newly implemented firing squad over lethal injection or the electric chair due to concerns over the former's history of botched executions.
Gov. Henry McMaster declined to grant clemency for Sigmon after the South Carolina Supreme Court rejected his last-ditch appeal on Friday.
What to know
- The execution took place at Broad River Correctional Institution, South Carolina at just after 6 p.m. ET.
- Sigmon, 67, was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend's parents in 2001.
- During the execution, Sigmon was strapped to a metal chair, hooded, and a target was placed over his heart. Three prison employees, standing 15 feet away, fired simultaneously. All used live ammunition.
- For his final meal, Sigmon asked for three buckets of original recipe Kentucky Fried Chicken so he could share it with his fellow death row inmates, according to his attorney Gerald "Bo" King.
- Some states are reviving older methods of capital punishment due to drug shortages, even as other states reconsider them entirely.
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Mar 07, 2025 at 06:44 PM EST
Sigmon’s final words called on Christians to help end the death penalty
Brad Sigmon used his final words, before he was executed via firing squad, to call upon fellow Christians to help end the death penalty, according to media witnesses.
Mar 07, 2025 at 06:41 PM EST
Sigmon’s official time of death revealed
Brad Sigmon's official time of death by firing squad was at 6:08 p.m. ET, according to Maayan Schechter, for South Carolina Public Radio.
Mar 07, 2025 at 06:39 PM EST
How the execution unfolded
The prison employees, who had all volunteered to carry out the execution, all fired at Sigmon at the same time through openings in a wall.
They were not visible to the dozen or so witnesses who were sat in the room, separated from the chamber by bullet-resistant glass, AP reports.
The target was blasted off Sigmon's chest when they opened fire. His chest was stained red and tissue could be seen from the wound when he took a breath after the shooting. His arms briefly tensed when he was shot.
A minute after the shooting, a doctor came out and examined Sigmon for 90 seconds. He was declared dead.
Mar 07, 2025 at 06:35 PM EST
Sigmon wore a hood over his head and a target with a bullseye over his chest during execution
Brad Sigmon had a hood placed over his head and he wore a white target with a red bullseye over his chest for his execution on Friday.
Sigmon became the first person to be executed by firing squad in 15 years in the U.S., and the first in the history of South Carolina.
During the execution, he wore wore a black jumpsuit with the hood and target, while armed prison employees stood 15 feet away from where he sat in the state's death chamber.
The state's unused electric chair was sat across from him in the same room. A gurney used to carry out lethal injections had been removed.
Mar 07, 2025 at 06:23 PM EST
Sigmon has been executed
South Carolina man Brad Sigmon is executed by firing squad, the first US prisoner killed by this method in 15 years.
Mar 07, 2025 at 06:13 PM EST
Read Gov. McMaster’s official letter refusing to grant clemency in full
Mar 07, 2025 at 06:09 PM EST
Gov. Henry McMaster has declined to grant clemency for Brad Sigmon
Gov. Henry McMaster has declined to grant clemency for Brad Sigmon.
It is not unexpected, as no South Carolina governor has granted clemency for an inmate facing the death penalty in the almost 50 years since capital punishment was brought back.
Mar 07, 2025 at 06:06 PM EST
Brother of last man executed by firing squad slams ‘cruel’ punishment
Randy Gardner, whose younger brother, Ronnie Lee Gardner, was executed by firing squad in 2010 in Utah has spoken out about the use of the "cruel" punishment.
"My little brother was the last person in the United States executed by firing squad, " he said.
"I think it's very vicious, and cruel and unusual punishment, I don't think you should be executing anybody in any way" Gardner said.
Mar 07, 2025 at 05:53 PM EST
Prayer vigil being held for Brad Sigmon at South Carolina church
A prayer vigil is being held for Brad Sigmon at a South Carolina church ahead of his execution.
The vigil was organized by the South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty at the Cokesbury United Methodist Church.
The group is asking for an end to capital punishment
Mar 07, 2025 at 05:48 PM EST
Sigmon’s final meal revealed
Brad Sigmon asked for three buckets of original recipe Kentucky Fried Chicken for his final meal, so he could share it with his fellow death row inmates, according to his attorney Gerald "Bo" King.
King told the Daily Mail that Sigmon serves as an "informal chaplain" of death row.
"He's someone who models the kind of service and ministry that's the central pillar of his faith," King added.
Mar 07, 2025 at 05:44 PM EST
Supreme Court deny last-ditch appeal to avoid execution
The Supreme Court has denied death row inmate Brad Sigmon's last-ditch appeal, paving the way for him to become the first inmate in the U.S. to die by firing squad in 15 years.
Sigmon's attorney had argued that his client was never given the information he needed about the lethal injection method to make a fully informed decision about his manner of death.
But the South Carolina's Supreme Court rejected his appeal.
The execution will take place at 6 p.m. unless Gov. Henry McMaster chose to grant him clemency. However, no governor has commuted a death sentence in the past 50 years since they were reintroduced.
Mar 07, 2025 at 05:38 PM EST
Just over half of Americans are in favor of death penalty
A poll taken by Gallup in October of last year found that 53 percent of Americans are in favor of the death penalty, but the number differs across generations.
Less than half of millennial and Gen Z adults support the punishment.
Mar 07, 2025 at 05:28 PM EST
Sigmon’s lawyer: He was forced to choose firing squad due to state’s ‘unconscionable’ secrecy
Gerald "Bo" King, attorney for Brad Sigmon, said that his client was forced into choosing death by firing squad because South Carolina had refused to share basic facts about the drugs they had for lethal injection.
In a statement published by the Death Penalty Information Center, he said, "Brad Sigmon has repeatedly asked for the basic facts needed to determine if South Carolina's drugs are expired, diluted, or spoiled. He has thus far been denied. He chose the firing squad because he was unwilling to risk the prolonged, torturous death that he fears his friends endured.
"He does not wish to inflict that pain on his family, the witnesses, or the execution team. But, given South Carolina's unnecessary and unconscionable secrecy, Brad is choosing as best he can."
Mar 07, 2025 at 05:22 PM EST
What family of Sigmon’s victims have said about his execution
Ricky Sims, grandson of Sigmon's victims, said that the inmate was going to "pay for what he's done."
Sims told Greenville News that he used to get on with Sigmon, "but he took away two people who would have done anything for their family.
"They were the rock of our family. It was a senseless thing that happened; there was no need for it, they didn't deserve it, and were good to him," he added.
"He's going to pay for what he's done."
Mar 07, 2025 at 05:10 PM EST
Why is Sigmon facing the death penalty?
...
Sigmon's conviction resulted in a death sentence due to the brutal nature of the murders and his subsequent kidnapping of Armstrong. Prosecutors argued that the premeditated attack warranted the harshest penalty.
Despite his legal team's efforts to highlight his mental health struggles and reformation in prison, courts have consistently upheld his sentence.
His legal team argues that South Carolina's secrecy surrounding its execution protocols, including withholding details about lethal injection drugs, has forced Sigmon to choose between two controversial methods: electrocution or the firing squad.
In a press release, attorney Gerald "Bo" King said: "Brad has no illusions about what being shot will do to his body. He does not wish to inflict that pain on his family, the witnesses, or the execution team. But, given South Carolina's unnecessary and unconscionable secrecy, Brad is choosing as best he can."
Mar 07, 2025 at 05:03 PM EST
Where is the death penalty legal? State-by-state breakdown
As of 2025, 27 states still allow the death penalty, with varying methods of execution:
- Alabama
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Florida
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Indiana
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Wyoming
Lethal injection remains the most common, though some states, including South Carolina, have authorized alternative methods such as electrocution, nitrogen gas and firing squads due to shortages of execution drugs.
Mar 07, 2025 at 04:40 PM EST
The firing squad in legal debates
Even U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, one of the most liberal justices on the Court, has suggested that the firing squad may be a more reliable method than lethal injection. In her 2017 dissent in Arthur v. Dunn, a high-profile case in which Alabama death row inmate Thomas Arthur challenged the state's execution method, she wrote:
"The condemned prisoner is conscious but entirely paralyzed, unable to move or scream in agony, as he suffers what may well be the chemical equivalent of being burned at the stake."
While she did not specifically endorse any method, she argued that states should consider returning to alternatives like the firing squad, noting, "In addition to being near instant, death by shooting may also be comparatively painless."
The case arose from the Supreme Court's Glossip v. Gross (2015) decision, which set a precedent requiring death row prisoners to propose a "known and available" alternative execution method if they claimed that the existing method violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
However, Alabama law did not explicitly allow firing squads at the time, and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that since firing squad executions were not authorized by the state, they could not be considered a "known and available" alternative.
Mar 07, 2025 at 04:13 PM EST
Is the Firing Squad More Humane?
Firing squads have been used in America on and off since colonial times, but their use declined as lethal injection became the dominant execution method. However, lethal injection has been plagued by botched executions and drug shortages, leading some legal experts and even death row inmates to argue that the firing squad is a more humane alternative.
Dr. James Williams, an emergency room physician and expert on gunshot trauma, has testified in multiple death penalty cases that firing squads result in a faster and potentially less painful death.
"There is a lot of evidence that the near-instant loss of blood pressure means no blood gets to the brainstem, and there is a rapid loss of consciousness," Williams told The Marshall Project. He compared the experience to being knocked out in a football tackle, emphasizing that execution by gunfire is "near instant" compared to lethal injection, which can take minutes and sometimes leads to prolonged suffering.
Williams, who was himself shot as a teenager, described the sensation: "At first, it felt like a hard blow to my chest and shoulder area, followed by an unpleasant tingling sensation. I can't say it's completely painless in every case, but I've asked patients since then, and some compare it to a hard tackle in football."
He also highlighted the risks of lethal injection. "I thought the original arguments for lethal injection were sound, drawing on how we euthanize dogs and cats to try to be more humane. But then anti-death penalty activists lobbied companies to stop providing the necessary drugs. As a result, states resorted to less effective drug cocktails," Williams said.
Mar 07, 2025 at 03:58 PM EST
Firing squad history: When was the last execution?
The last execution by firing squad in the U.S. occurred in Utah in 2010 when Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed for a 1984 murder.
Utah remains the only state that has used this method since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, carrying out three firing squad executions.
Five states—South Carolina, Mississippi, Utah, Oklahoma and Idaho—currently allow firing squads as an alternative execution method.
Mar 07, 2025 at 03:52 PM EST
How the execution will happen
Death row inmates in South Carolina are housed in a building adjacent to the death chamber at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia.
Shortly before his execution, Sigmon will be moved to an individual cell closer to where his life will end.
Just before 6 p.m., the warden will ask Governor Henry McMaster by phone if he is granting clemency and the Attorney General's Office if there are any legal blocks to the execution.
If both answers are no, Sigmon will enter the death chamber and he will be strapped into a metal chair that sits on top of a catch basin.
The curtain to the witness room will open and the right side of Sigmon's face and body will be toward the window.
His lawyer or a prison official can read his final statement if he wishes. A hood will be placed on his head. A target, positioned by a medical official, will be over his heart.
Fifteen feet away will be three state Corrections Department volunteers with rifles. All three will have live ammunition. They will fire from an opening in a wall the witnesses can't see into.
A doctor will come out, passing by the state's immobile electric chair, to confirm Sigmon is dead. The witnesses will leave after signing an official document that they witnessed the execution.
Not much is known about the people who will fire the rifles. Prison officials said they have "completed all required training."
A shield law passed in 2023 in part to keep the name of any supplier of lethal injection drugs secret also keeps secret many other details about the firing squad, from what training it received to the names of anyone on the execution team.
The state will use .308-caliber Winchester 110-grain TAP Urban ammunition often found in police rifles, said Colie Rushton, the director of security and emergency operations at the Corrections Department.
The round is designed to break apart as soon as it hits something firm, in this case the prisoner's rib cage. Fragments will spread out and the intent is to destroy as much of the heart as possible.
If the aim of the executioners is not true, death could take time. Damaged hearts can continue to pump blood.
The information released by the state to the public gives no indication what might happen if an inmate survives the initial shots. The squad could fire again.
Mar 07, 2025 at 03:49 PM EST
Who is Brad Keith Sigmon?
...
Sigmon was convicted in 2002 of murdering David and Gladys Larke, the parents of his ex-girlfriend, Rebecca Armstrong, at their home in Greenville County, South Carolina.
According to court records, he beat the couple to death with a baseball bat before abducting Armstrong. She managed to escape after he shot at her once, and the gun malfunctioned.
During his trial, Sigmon told the jury, "I am guilty. I have no excuse for what I did. It's my fault, and I'm not trying to blame nobody else for it, and I'm sorry."
Sigmon's attorneys have argued that undiagnosed mental illness played a role in the crime.
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