Man on death row chooses gruelling execution method that hasn’t been used in 15 years
Brad Sigmon is set to be executed next month
A man sentenced to death will be the first prisoner to be executed via this method since 2010.
Brad Sigmon was put on death row back in 2001 after being convicted for the double murder of his ex Rebecca Barbre's parents in South Carolina.
According to CBS, Sigmon, 67, beat her parents to death with a baseball bat while at their home in Greenville County. He then kidnapped Rebecca at gunpoint, according to prosecutors, but she escaped from his car as he attempted to shoot her, but missed.
In addition to a 30-year jail term for first-degree burglary, Sigmon received given two death sentences and has been on death row ever since.
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After having numerous appeals rejected, Sigmon is scheduled to be executed on March 7, 2025.
The Guardian reports that South Carolina now grants death row inmates choice of execution methods - either via electric chair, lethal injection or firing squad. If they do not choose, then the default method is electric chair.
However, Sigmon has decided to die next month by a firing squad, making him the first US inmate to choose the execution method in 15 years.
He will also become the fourth inmate to be executed by a firing squad since 1976, with the last one taking place in Utah in 2010 with the death of Ronnie Lee Gardner.
The New York Post reports that Sigmon will be strapped to a chair and have a hood placed over his head while the execution takes place.
He will also have a target placed over his heart in the death chamber, while three volunteers will fire at him through a small opening around 15 feet away.
According to Signmon's attorney, Gerald 'Bo' King, he didn't end up choosing the electric chair because it would 'burn and cook him alive'.
He said (via NBC News): "But the alternative is just as monstrous. If he chose lethal injection, he risked the prolonged death suffered by all three of the men South Carolina has executed since September — three men Brad knew and cared for — who remained alive, strapped to a gurney, for more than twenty minutes."
King said the only remaining option was a firing squad, adding: "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."
Another of Sigmon's spokespersons, Courtney Farrell, also said that he will be executed at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, where he is currently held.
Callum Jones