US carries out first firing squad execution since 2010

A South Carolina man, Brad Sigmon, 67, was executed by firing squad on Friday, marking the first firing squad execution in the United States in 15 years. Sigmon, convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat in 2001, was put to death at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, according to South Carolina prison spokeswoman Chrysti Shain. Shain said the fatal shots were fired at 6:05 pm (2305 GMT), and Sigmon was pronounced dead three minutes later by a physician.

Journalists who witnessed the execution described the scene as Sigmon, dressed in a black jumpsuit, was strapped to a chair in the death chamber with a small red bullseye over his heart. In a final statement, read by his attorney Gerald “Bo” King, Sigmon expressed a message of love and urged Christians to help end the death penalty. A hood was placed over his head before the firing squad—volunteers from the South Carolina Department of Corrections—fired their rifles from about 15 feet away through a slit in the wall.

“The shots were all fired at once,” said journalist Anna Dobbins of WYFF News 4. “There was a splash of blood when the bullets entered his body.”

King described Sigmon’s execution as horrifying and violent, calling it a bloody spectacle. “It is unfathomable that, in 2025, South Carolina would execute one of its citizens in this bloody spectacle,” he said.

Sigmon was given a choice between lethal injection, the electric chair, or the firing squad. His attorney said he chose the firing squad after being placed in an “impossible” position. “If he chose lethal injection, he risked the prolonged death suffered by all three of the men South Carolina has executed since September,” King said. He also noted that the electric chair “would burn and cook him alive,” calling both options “monstrous.”

The last firing squad execution in the United States was in Utah in 2010, with previous cases in 1996 and 1977. Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, lethal injection has been the primary method of execution. However, some states have turned to alternative methods due to concerns over lethal injection protocols. Alabama has recently carried out four executions using nitrogen gas, a method condemned by UN experts as cruel and inhumane.

Currently, five states—South Carolina, Utah, Idaho, Mississippi, and Oklahoma—have authorized firing squads as an alternative execution method. There have been six executions in the U.S. so far this year, following 25 in 2024. The death penalty is abolished in 23 U.S. states, while California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania have moratoriums in place. President Donald Trump, a strong proponent of capital punishment, has called for an expansion of its use, stating it should be applied “for the vilest crimes.”

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