South Carolina's first ever execution by firing squad set for this week as inmate reveals why he chose method
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: South Carolina Department of Corrections
A man on death row will become South Carolina's first ever execution by firing squad later this week after revealing why he chose the gruesome execution method.
Brad Sigmon was put on death row back in 2002 after being convicted for the double murder of his ex Rebecca Barbre's parents in South Carolina.
Sigmon beat her parents to death with a baseball bat while at their home in Greenville County, according to CBS.
He then kidnapped Rebecca at gunpoint, according to prosecutors, but she escaped from his car as he attempted to shoot her, but missed.
Advert
On top of a 30-year jail term for first-degree burglary, Sigmon received two death sentences and has been on death row ever since.
Sigmon has had numerous appeals to have his conviction overturned rejected and will now be executed by firing squad on Friday (March 7).
The inmate is making history as he's the first South Carolina prisoner to be executed via a firing squad while the method is being used in the US for the first time in 15 years.
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.
Sigmon will also have a target placed over his heart in the death chamber as three volunteers fire at him through a small opening around 15 feet away.
South Carolina grants death row inmates a choice of execution methods - either via electric chair, lethal injection or firing squad.
The Guardian reports that if inmates decide not to choose then they will be placed on the default execution method of the electric chair.
Gerald 'Bo' King, Sigmon's attorney, explained how his client didn't choose to avoid 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."
That left just the firing squad, but the death row inmate is certainly under no illusion as to how brutal it will be.
King added: "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."