US South Carolina set to execute prisoner in state's first firing squad execution - Brad Sigmon, convicted in a 2002 double murder, has chosen a method that is rarely used. Utah carried out the last firing squad execution in 2010.

  • 🐕 I am attempting to get the site runnning as fast as possible. If you are experiencing slow page load times, please report it.
1741359590843.png
Brad Sigmon, convicted of beating his estranged girlfriend’s parents to death in Greenville County in 2001, in an undated photo.

Source | Archive

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina man convicted in a 2002 double murder is set to die Friday by firing squad, a rarely used execution method never before carried out by the state.

Barring a last-minute reprieve from the governor’s office or the U.S. Supreme Court, Brad Sigmon’s execution is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. Sigmon, 67, would be the oldest inmate executed by the state. His lawyer, Gerald “Bo” King, has requested clemency from Gov. Henry McMaster, arguing Sigmon has transformed his life in prison, rededicated himself to his Christian faith and poses no further danger while incarcerated.

“The man Brad is today does not deserve execution,” King said Thursday.

McMaster, a Republican, signed a bill in 2021 that legalized the firing squad and requires condemned inmates to choose between it, lethal injection or the state’s primary execution method of electrocution. His office declined to comment.

Sigmon chose a firing squad after concerns were raised about previous lethal injection executions in South Carolina. Inmates required twice the dose of pentobarbital, and one inmate “died with his lungs massively swollen with blood and fluid,” akin to “drowning,” according to an autopsy report cited in court documents filed by the defense last month.

State prosecutors responded that Sigmon “waived any argument about lethal injection” since he chose to die by firing squad.

King said Sigmon has admitted his guilt and “accepted that he deserves punishment” but added that “he’s been asked to make this choice as to how he’s going to die” with only basic knowledge of each protocol.

South Carolina restarted executions in September after a 13-year pause caused by the state’s inability to procure lethal injection drugs. A shield law allows officials to publicly withhold details surrounding where the state sources its current supply of pentobarbital.

Richard “Dick” Harpootlian, a former prosecutor who handled death penalty cases, introduced the firing squad proposal when he served in the state Legislature in 2021. He said he “wrestled” with pushing for the method but found it “less barbaric” than the electric chair. “I don’t relish the idea of somebody being shot to death, but if they’re going to die, this is an alternative,” Harpootlian said.

The state has released some details about how it plans to carry out the firing squad execution; the last one occurred in 2010 in Utah, the only state that has used the firing squad since the Supreme Court ruled the death penalty constitutional in 1976. In South Carolina, three Department of Corrections employees will make up the volunteer squad, officials said. They will fire rifles, each one loaded with live ammunition, from behind a wall about 15 feet from the inmate, who will be seated.

1741359848906.png
The execution chamber at the Utah State Prison after a firing squad executed Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010.

Before the shooting, the inmate will be allowed to make a last statement, then a hood will be placed over his head and a target pinned over his heart. Bullet-resistant glass separates the execution chamber from another room where witnesses, including media, will be permitted. “I don’t know what they have done or how they have trained to prepare to shoot another person from 15 feet away in the heart,” King said. “It’s easier to think of ways that it could go wrong than to feel confident it will go right.”

Deborah Denno, a professor at Fordham Law School who studies the death penalty, said execution by firing squad remains one of the “least inhumane” options compared to other methods, including lethal injection and nitrogen gas, given how quickly someone can die after being shot in the heart.

Its return hearkens back to other periods in American history when firing squads were more common, such as the colonial era and the Civil War, when it was used against deserters.

“Even though [a firing squad] was used in our very first execution in 1608, we’ve never had this many states adopt statutorily the firing squad until now,” Denno said, adding that a bill in Idaho would make it the primary execution method.

Witnesses to Utah’s last firing squad execution recently recalled to NBC News the sound of rapid gunfire in the chamber and how the inmate, Ronnie Lee Gardner, appeared to flinch and move his arm after being shot. A corrections department spokeswoman said the agency offers mental health support for staff taking part in executions.

Sigmon was found guilty in the beating deaths of his ex-girlfriend’s parents, William David Larke, 62, and Gladys Gwendolyn Larke, 59. Prosecutors say Sigmon used a baseball bat to attack the couple in their Greenville County home, and then abducted his ex-girlfriend, who managed to escape from his car. Sigmon fled and was captured in Tennessee after a multiday manhunt.

In his request for his execution to be halted, his defense lawyers said the jury at his trial was not told about his history of mental illness, including bipolar disorder, and his “traumatic and abusive childhood,” underscoring claims of ineffective legal counsel. The South Carolina Supreme Court had previously rejected Sigmon’s request to stop his execution and did so again on Tuesday, finding that such mitigating evidence “would not have influenced the jury’s appraisal of Sigmon’s culpability.”

1741359966834.png
From another article: Gladys and David Larke are pictured during a Fourth of July celebration in the 1990s. (Archive of that article)
 
Firing squad is generally seen as a honorable way to die, at least compared to the rest, like modern version of beheading by sword which was reserved for nobility in Europe. Several nazi leaders applied to be executed by firing squad (which was denied). If I had to die, I'd probably pick it too tbh. I think it should be an option.
 
This cousinfucker earned his spot in the death chair. No tears for him.

Several nazi leaders applied to be executed by firing squad (which was denied).
Read about John C. Woods. He bullshitted his way into becoming a hangman in the U.S. Army, nobody checked his blatant lie about working as a hangman for Texas and Oklahoma (which used the electric chair, not hanging when he claimed to have worked for them). He botched a number of the hangings, some believe deliberately.
 
Last edited:
South Carolina restarted executions in September after a 13-year pause caused by the state’s inability to procure lethal injection drugs
A shield law allows officials to publicly withhold details surrounding where the state sources its current supply of pentobarbital.
The absolute level of shylockery to manufacture this "problem" is insane, and proof that all involved should be deported.

There are eleventeen gorillion things you could inject a person with to quickly and assuredly execute them, including 10x doses of any number of opioids. Yet we let society's HR naggers erect byzantine procedural processes that require one specific drug whose supply chain they can then disrupt endlessly.

Here's a thought: approve heroin, fentanyl, morphine, and a half dozen barbiturates, and a policy that says to procure whichever is easiest & cheapest.
 
The absolute level of shylockery to manufacture this "problem" is insane, and proof that all involved should be deported.

There are eleventeen gorillion things you could inject a person with to quickly and assuredly execute them, including 10x doses of any number of opioids. Yet we let society's HR naggers erect byzantine procedural processes that require one specific drug whose supply chain they can then disrupt endlessly.

Here's a thought: approve heroin, fentanyl, morphine, and a half dozen barbiturates, and a policy that says to procure whichever is easiest & cheapest.
Nebraska Droyd'd a dude with fentanyl back in 2018.
 
Witnesses to Utah’s last firing squad execution recently recalled to NBC News the sound of rapid gunfire in the chamber and how the inmate, Ronnie Lee Gardner, appeared to flinch and move his arm after being shot. A corrections department spokeswoman said the agency offers mental health support for staff taking part in executions.
Anyone who has every slaughtered an animal or hunted knows the electrical impulses in a body can cause movement during the minutes after death. We help slaughter livestock for other new homesteaders and always make sure to explain what can happen during a kill. I know a coroner who says they've had bodies move after they come in if police got to them quick enough and that'll be an hour or more after death.

You're killing someone. It's not going to be particularly pleasant. Many a hard man has puked on the battlefield after the adrenaline wears off or when they're laying in the rack at night trying to forget what happened that day long enough to go to sleep. It means you're human and not some kind of fucking psychopath.
 
The state has released some details about how it plans to carry out the firing squad execution; the last one occurred in 2010 in Utah, the only state that has used the firing squad since the Supreme Court ruled the death penalty constitutional in 1976. In South Carolina, three Department of Corrections employees will make up the volunteer squad, officials said. They will fire rifles, each one loaded with live ammunition, from behind a wall about 15 feet from the inmate, who will be seated.
I thought it was common practice for only one gun to have live ammunition and for the rest to have blanks so that no one technically knows who fired the shots?
 

More of the same:
German pharmaceutical company Fresenius Kabi attempted to halt the execution with a federal lawsuit filed last week.
The suit alleged that Nebraska had not legally obtained the potassium chloride
A federal judge rejected Fresenius Kabi's request to block the use of its drugs, and a circuit court denied an appeal.
Another pharmaceutical company, Sandoz, requested last week that Nebraska reveal who made the drugs it would use to execute Moore.
Just three years ago, Nebraska had abolished the death penalty. A year later, it was restored after 60% of voters supported it.
In July, Nevada was set to use fentanyl in a lethal injection until a lawsuit stalled the execution amid claims that the state illegitimately obtained one of the drugs it planned to use.
60% voter approval, yet the usual suspects employ legal kvetchery to manipulate procedural outcomes.

"There's no particular reason why one would use fentanyl," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.
"No one has used it before, and we've had hundreds and hundreds of executions by injection. That suggests that the state is using fentanyl because it can get its hands on it," he told the Washington Post.
This disingenuous snake offers no legitimate reason to exclude fentanyl, he just wants an artificial policy restriction to a single drug his fellow travelers can attack.
 
I thought it was common practice for only one gun to have live ammunition and for the rest to have blanks so that no one technically knows who fired the shots?
Yes, that's the common practice. Thing is, firing squad isn't exactly a common practice in and of itself in the United States, and it hasn't had baseline protocol written for it quite like hanging, electrocution and lethal injection have. There's wide variation in the process.
 
It's the same effect if all have ammo. If you all hit him at once, nobody can claim the kill.
I'm interested to know whether it is purely about "claiming the kill" for bragging/ego rights or whether it also offers them a mental/moral/ethical break from the role too, sort of plausible deniability from knowing they killed a man.

Hopefully they only use officers who have actually killed people before for that reason.
 
I'm interested to know whether it is purely about "claiming the kill" for bragging/ego rights or whether it also offers them a mental/moral/ethical break from the role too, sort of plausible deniability from knowing they killed a man.

Hopefully they only use officers who have actually killed people before for that reason.
Both. Keeps glory hogs from saying they killed someone, and keeps the non psychopaths (read: normal) from wanting to jump off a bridge.
 
I'm interested to know whether it is purely about "claiming the kill" for bragging/ego rights or whether it also offers them a mental/moral/ethical break from the role too, sort of plausible deniability from knowing they killed a man.
That has always been the rationale behind the practice that I've heard. I always felt it was stupid and risky because you only give the firing squad one chance. Mr. Murphy injects himself wherever he can.

They're all volunteers. They know their going in there to kill someone. They might not have clear idea of how that will impact them, but that is what resources after the fact are for. Just get the job done as cleanly as you can.
 
I'm interested to know whether it is purely about "claiming the kill" for bragging/ego rights or whether it also offers them a mental/moral/ethical break from the role too, sort of plausible deniability from knowing they killed a man.

Hopefully they only use officers who have actually killed people before for that reason.
According to World Population Review, police officers in South Carolina killed 183 people from 2013 to 2023. So, I'd suppose there's no shortage of police officers that've sent criminals to the Great Crackden In The Sky there.
 
Back