Brad Keith Sigmon, a prisoner from South Carolina, was put to death by firing squad on Friday for the 2001 murders of his ex-girlfriend’s parents. This was the first time the death penalty had been applied outside of Utah and the fourth time it had been applied in the US since it was reinstated.
Citing doubts about the efficacy and humanity of the electric chair or lethal injection, Sigmon decided to pass away in this manner. Using biblical allusions, he condemned the death penalty, apologized, and conveyed love in his closing remarks. Three volunteers fired live ammo from a distance of fifteen feet during the strictly protocol-followed execution.
To lessen the psychological strain on shooters, firing squads typically include a blank cartridge, also referred to as a “conscience round.” All three executioners on Friday, however, were volunteer employees of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, according to spokeswoman Chrysti Shain, who told CNN that this was not the case.
The executioners each fired a single shot with.308a Winchester TAP Urban rounds from their rifles. According to Shain, the bullet offers quick expansion and fragmentation. Utah employs a five-person shooting squad with two-round loaded.30-caliber rifles, in contrast to South Carolina.
The prisoner is over 20 to 20 feet away from the five shooters. There are blanks in one of the weapons. It is theoretically possible to deny firing a fatal shot by including a shooter with blank ammunition.
This psychological ploy’s efficacy is questionable, though, as anyone who has fired a rifle is said to be able to distinguish the difference. At 6:08 p.m. local time (23:08 GMT), Sigmon was executed at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, just after the appointed time.
The proceedings were open to three members of the victims’ family. Following the injections, a physician examined the inmate for roughly 90 seconds before declaring him dead. “God does not grant man the right to murder another man anywhere in the New Testament,” Sigmon stated in a statement issued by his attorneys. Inside the execution chamber, he was strapped to a chair and dressed in his prison clothing.
He would be burned and cooked alive in the antiquated South Carolina electric chair unless he opted for a firing squad or death injection. Gerald “Bo” King, one of Sigmon’s lawyers, stated in a news release earlier this week that “the alternative is just as monstrous.”
Only four executions by firing squad have been documented since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976 as a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Gregg v. Georgia. The three prior cases were all in Utah: Gary Mark Gilmore on January 17, 1977; John Albert Taylor on January 26, 1996; and Ronnie Lee Gardner on June 18, 2010.
Because of its legal framework and cultural heritage—early Mormon settlers considered blood atonement—the practice of pouring blood for specific sins—Utah has been the historical epicenter for this approach. Although fire squad executions have not been practiced in any other state since 1976, they have been permitted as a backup in Idaho, Mississippi, and Oklahoma in recent years.
