Death row inmate set to die in rare execution method after final appeal fails
Topics: South Carolina, Death Row, Crime, US News
Liv Bridge
Featured Image Credit: SC Department of Corrections
Topics: South Carolina, Death Row, Crime, US News
An inmate who has sat on death row for more than two decades has been given his execution date after his final appeal failed.
Stephen Bryant from South Carolina is set to be killed by a rare execution method after his final attempt to appeal his sentence fell through.
The now 44-year-old man was convicted in 2008 for killing three people in Sumter County, Florida, over several days in October 2004.
During his rampage, Bryant shot all four of his victims, fatally wounding three while leaving a fourth seriously injured. He also left a taunting message to cops written in his victim's blood that read: "Victim 4 in 2 weeks. Catch me if u can."
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During his trial, it was revealed that the then 23-year-old started his crime spree with a burglary on October 5, followed by another burglary at another house the next day, during which he stole a handgun.
Later that day, on October 8, Bryant shot at a stranger while he was fishing, who miraculously survived his injuries.
But on October 9, he then gunned down his supposed friend and colleague, Clifton Gainey, 36, leaving his body on a rural road before burglarizing the home of 62-year-old Willard Tietjen, whom he shot nine times before burning his face and eyes with a cigarette.
It is reported he used the victim's blood to write messages on the wall and even answered calls from Tietjen's daughter, telling her that he had 'killed' her father and called himself the 'prowler.'
Two days later, on October 13, he killed Christopher Burgess, 35, after meeting him at a convenience store.
The authorities have now confirmed that Bryant is sentenced to die by firing squad at 6pm on Friday (November 14) at a Columbia prison.
The news comes as attorneys for the killer made a last-ditch attempt to appeal, arguing that the judge who sentenced him to death row failed to consider how badly Bryant's brain was damaged through his mom's alleged use of alcohol and drugs while she was pregnant.
They claimed he wasn't given a full brain scan before his trial, which could have indicated in utero damage.
His lawyers also claimed to have found new evidence following a 2024 interview where Bryant described having allegedly suffered sexual abuse as a child.
However, the South Carolina Supreme Court rejected the motion earlier this week, writing that even if it were proven he had Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, it would have been unlikely to alter the outcome of the sentence.
And last month, the US Supreme Court also declined to review the sentence.
"By any stretch, (Bryant) demonstrated a high level of planning, decision making, and calculation," the justices wrote in their rejection following a unanimous decision on Monday (November 10).
Although sentenced to death this week, Bryant could still ask the governor to reduce his death sentence to life in prison, which could be announced mere minutes before the execution, though no South Carolina governor has ever granted clemency in modern history, according to CBS.
He will be the 50th person executed in the state since it restored the death penalty in 1985, as well as the third person to be executed via firing squad in South Carolina this year.