A South Carolina man who was on death row for 20 years for the murders of two people was executed on Friday by firing the squad.
Brad Sigmon opposed the fatal injection and noted concerns about the suffering he might face from then on; According to Fox Carolina. The 67-year-old was the first person to die in the US after firing a squad since 2010 and the fourth person in the nation since the death penalty resumed. According to Associated Press (AP). He was also the first person to be executed like this in South Carolina, Fox Carolina reported.
Three volunteer department employees fired their rifles at the chest target at 6:05pm, and after three minutes they fired their rifles at the chest target, leaving the hood on Sigmon’s head. The employee’s guns were equipped with a .308 caliber Winchester 110 tap city round intended to break the impact. (Related: Enforcement rises to the highest level worldwide in almost 10 years).
South Carolina Double Murderer Brad Sigmon becomes the first US death row inmate to die after firing a squad in 15 years https://t.co/xxeo6ifew5 pic.twitter.com/sy4lfjwlyc
– New York Post (@nypost) March 7, 2025
Sigmon was sentenced to death in 2002 for murdering the parents of his ex-girlfriend inside the house, the outlet said. David and Gladys Lalke die from being beaten by a baseball bat after their daughter broke up with Sigmon.
Sigmon accused her ex-girlfriend at the muzzle and shot her as she escaped from the car, the outlet noted. She survived the injury.
Sigmon then stole the RV and ran for 10 days before he was eventually caught at Gatlinburg, a campsite in Tennessee.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request to delay Sigmon’s execution, and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster denied his tolerance just after 6pm on Friday, the outlet reported.
Protesters gathered outside the corrections facility to oppose the death penalty, including the brother of the last man executed by firing a squad in the United States, Fox Carolina reported.
Sigmon’s lawyer shared his final statement that he wanted a statement saying “I want to be one of my fellow Christians’ love and calling to help end the death penalty.”
“The use of looking at the ju judge was used to justify the death penalty. At the time I was so ignorant that I couldn’t know how wrong it was. Why? Because we no longer live under Old Testament laws, but now we live under the New Testament,” he said.
