Brad Sigmon, an inmate on death row in South Carolina, will be executed by firing squad on March 7. He chose this form of execution himself. Condemned in 2002 for the murder of his ex-girlfriend’s parents, the 67-year-old will be the first prisoner to undergo such a death in the state. The last person to be executed by firing squad was Ronnie Lee Gardner in Utah in 2010. Sigmon’s lawyer, Gerald ‘Bo’ King, described his client’s choice as an “impossible dilemma.” The prison administration had given Sigmon only three dramatic options: lethal injection, electric chair, and firing squad.
Had he chosen lethal injection, he would have risked a long and painful death, similar to other recently executed prisoners who struggled to die for over 20 minutes. The electric chair, however, also subjects inmates to unbearable agony, with the risk of being completely burned. The “firing squad” seems to be the fastest and least painful alternative.
Aware of the brutality of the technique, Sigmon declared that he resigned himself to this tragic end. His execution, barring last-minute appeals, will take place at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, where facilities for executions by firing squad have recently been renewed.
In 2022, South Carolina approved this method to address the difficulty in obtaining drugs for lethal injection. Although a rare and controversial method, death by firing squad became a legal option. Sigmon will thus be the fourth prisoner in the U.S. in the last 65 years to face this type of execution.
The case not only raises moral questions about the country’s penal system but also highlights the intensity of the debate surrounding the death penalty. Since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated it, as of 2023 more than 1,500 executions have been carried out, with Texas leading the list.
