A man in South Carolina is set to be the first individual executed by firing squad in the United States in 15 years, following the rejection of his plea for clemency. Brad Sigmon, aged 67, is slated to face a firing squad on Friday, March 7, after spending nearly 25 years on death row for the 2001 murders of David and Gladys Larke, his ex-girlfriend’s parents, whom he killed with a baseball bat.
Sigmon’s upcoming execution marks the first utilization of a firing squad in South Carolina since the state’s Supreme Court deemed the method legal in July 2024. Although the State Legislature had legalized executions by firing squad and electric chair in 2021, a lower court had blocked the implementation the following year.
Despite Sigmon’s last-ditch effort to seek mercy being denied by the state Supreme Court on Tuesday, citing the absence of “exceptional circumstances” required to delay the execution, the Greenville News reported. Previously, Sigmon had chosen to be executed by firing squad instead of through lethal injection or the electric chair. Witnesses will be able to view the execution through bulletproof glass, according to the Associated Press.
If no last-minute clemency is granted by Gov. Henry McMaster, Sigmon will have his head covered by a hood and a target placed over his heart as three officers from the state Corrections Department, positioned fifteen feet away, fire at him through a wall opening. The executioners will remain anonymous to the witnesses.
The last individual to be executed by firing squad in the United States was Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010, who had fatally shot an attorney while attempting to escape a courthouse in Utah. Five states, including South Carolina, Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Utah, authorize executions by firing squad, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
