A condemned South Carolina murderer has chosen to become the first US inmate in 15 years to be executed by firing squad next month.
Brad Sigmon, 67, is scheduled to die on March 7 for the brutal baseball bat beating deaths of his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 2001, and on Friday he chose the firing squad method instead of facing lethal injection or the electric chair.
Only three inmates have been executed by firing squad in the US since 1976, all of which were in Utah, with the most recent taking place in 2010.
When he is executed, Sigmon will be strapped into a chair in Broad River prison’s death chamber, have a hood placed over his head, and a target placed over his heart before three volunteers fire at him from around 15 feet away.
The killer’s attorney Gerald ‘Bo’ King said that Sigmon wanted to avoid the electric chair because it would ‘burn and cook him alive’, but cited the widespread issues with America’s lethal injection systems as ‘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 wrote in a statement.
The uncertainty surrounding lethal injections – which have been plagued by issues for years amid a shortage of the drugs used – led Sigmon to pick a method that he knows will be a violent death, King said.
‘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,’ he said.
Sigmon was sentenced to two death sentences in 2001 for the baseball bat killings of David and Gladys Larke, 62 and 59 respectively, the parents of his ex-girlfriend Rebecca Barbare.
A week after Barbare ended their relationship, Sigmon snuck into her parents’ home in Greenville, South Carolina and bludgeoned them both to death with the baseball bat.
He then waited in the home until Barbare returned, at which point he kidnapped her at gunpoint and forced her into his car.
Barbare escaped from the car at some time during their journey, and although Sigmon shot at her, he missed and he fled the scene when she escaped.
Police launched an urgent manhunt for Sigmon, and after 11 days on the run he was caught in Gatlinburg, Tennessee and extradited back to South Carolina.
In a confession after his arrest, Sigmon told investigators that he targeted his ex and her family because if ‘I couldn’t have her, I wasn’t going to let anybody else have her.’
Sigmon’s attorneys have one last shot at an appeal to the state Supreme Court, where they will argue for a hearing to be held over claims that Sigmon’s trial lawyers were inexperienced and failed to explain his rough childhood or mental illness to the jury, according to the Associated Press.
If the state Supreme Court does not grant the hearing, Sigmon will have to hope Republican Governor Henry McMaster steps in at the last minute to stay his execution.
McMaster would become the first South Carolina governor in 49 years to grant clemency since the state restarted the death penalty.
Amid issues with obtaining lethal injection drugs, firing squads have re-emerged as an execution method, with alleged quadruple killer Bryan Kohberger also reportedly facing the same fate if he is convicted at trial.
South Carolina reportedly spent $54,000 in 2022 to construct its firing squad apparatus, which will be in the same room as the electric chair and lethal injection gurney.
This included installing bulletproof glass in the witness booth, putting a basin under the chair to catch blood, and a wall was built for the shooters to stand behind.
Witnesses would be able to see the inmate being shot to death, but will not have a view of the volunteer shooters.