South Carolina executed Brad Sigmon, 67, by firing squad on Friday, marking the first such execution in the United States since 2010. Sigmon was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat in 2001.
Sigmon was strapped to a metal chair, dressed in a black jumpsuit, with a red target placed over his heart. Witnesses reported seeing blood spray as bullets struck him. He was pronounced dead three minutes later.
Before his execution, Sigmon issued a statement through his attorney, Gerald “Bo” King. “I want to send a message of love and a calling to my fellow Christians to help us end the death penalty,” he said.
Executioners, volunteers from the South Carolina Department of Corrections, carried out the sentence at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. A hood was placed over Sigmon’s head before shots rang out from a slit in a nearby wall.
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster denied his clemency request, and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his last-minute appeal for a stay of execution.
Death Penalty Controversy
Sigmon had to choose between lethal injection, the electric chair, or a firing squad. His attorney said he picked the latter due to the “inhumane” nature of the other options. “Brad’s death was horrifying and violent. It is unfathomable that in 2025, South Carolina still carries out such executions,” King stated.
South Carolina is one of five U.S. states where firing squads are legal, alongside Utah, Idaho, Mississippi, and Oklahoma. The method was reinstated due to difficulties obtaining lethal injection drugs.
His execution has reignited debates on capital punishment, with global human rights groups condemning the practice as outdated and inhumane.
Criticism of the U.S. death penalty system continues to grow. Amnesty International and the United Nations have condemned capital punishment, urging the U.S. to abandon it. The debate intensified after Alabama introduced nitrogen gas executions, another controversial method.
Despite growing opposition, several states, including South Carolina, continue to uphold the practice. While 23 U.S. states have abolished the death penalty, others actively expand execution methods.
Sigmon’s execution marks the sixth in the U.S. this year, following 25 in 2024. The U.S. remains one of the few Western nations still carrying out executions, despite increasing global pressure to end the practice.
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