A South Carolina man convicted of murder has been executed by firing squad, the first person in the U.S. to be executed by that method in 15 years.
Brad Sigmon, 67, was pronounced dead at 6:08 p.m. local time after three volunteer prison staff armed with live ammunition opened fire on him.
Sigmon killed his ex-girlfriend's parents with a baseball bat in their Greenville County home in 2001 as part of a failed plot to kidnap their daughter. He told authorities he intended to take her away for a romantic weekend and then kill her and himself.
Sigmon's lawyers argued that he chose the firing squad because he feared the electric chair would “burn him alive” and feared that a lethal injection of pentobarbital would cause fluid and blood to rush into his lungs and cause him to choke.
Information about South Carolina's lethal injection methods remains secret, and Sigmon unsuccessfully asked the state Supreme Court on Thursday to halt his execution for that reason.
Prison guards stood 15 feet from where Sigmon sat on the state's death row, the same distance as the free-throw line on a basketball court.
The method of execution by firing squad has a long and brutal history both in the United States and abroad. Death by shooting was used to punish rebels and deserters in armies, as a form of justice in the American Wild West, and as an instrument of terror and political repression in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
Since 1977, only three other U.S. inmates have been executed by firing squad. All were in Utah, with the most recent, Ronnie Lee Gardner, executed in 2010. Another Utah man, Ralph Menzies, could be next; he is awaiting the outcome of a hearing in which his lawyers argued that his mental state makes him unfit to be executed.
On Friday in South Carolina, a group of protesters holding signs that read “Every life is precious” and “Delivering justice, not people” gathered outside a prison ahead of Sigmon's execution.
Sigmon's supporters and lawyers have asked Republican Gov. Henry McMaster to commute his death sentence to life in prison.
They claimed he was a model prisoner who was trusted by guards and worked every day to atone for his actions, and that the murders occurred after he was victimized.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
