On Friday, the state of South Carolina executed 67-year-old Brad Sigmon by firing squad, the first time that such a method has been used in the United States since 2010. According to a firsthand account from the Associated Press, Sigmon, who was convicted of a double homicide in 2001, was placed in an execution chair at the Broad River Correctional Institution’s Capital Punishment Facility. Corrections officers pulled a hood down over his head and placed a bulls-eye over his heart, at which point a three-man firing squad took their aim and shot Sigmon to death. A doctor then came out to examine the body and confirm the death at 6:08 p.m. “I want my closing statement to be one of love and a calling to my fellow Christians to help us end the death penalty,” he said with his final words.
South Carolina legalized the firing squad as a form of execution in 2021, an option which Sigmon had chosen instead of the state’s usual method of lethal injection. Sigmon could have also chosen the electric chair. “We know there is something wrong with how South Carolina is carrying out lethal injections, and Mr. Sigmon has repeatedly asked for the information,” regarding it, his lawyer, Bo King, told PBS. “But he’s been denied that at every turn.”
Lethal injection has been associated with a number of troubling incidents over the years. An NPR analysis of 200 execution autopsy reports over 20 years found that 84% of people executed via lethal injection showed evidence of pulmonary edema, a condition which feels similar to drowning. Execution witnesses often describe the person being injected experiencing this, foaming at the mouth before they die. The prison system would not answer queries from Sigmon and King about apparent double doses of the lethal drug used, pentobarbital nor about previously executed inmates’ bodies showing signs of pulmonary edema.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, support for the practice is on a downward trend, with 55% of Americans finding it morally acceptable in 2024, compared to 60% the year before.
