Death row inmate requests to be killed by rare execution method not used for 15 years
A death row inmate in the US has chosen to die by an execution method which has been used just four times in 65 years.
Brad Sigmon, 67, is currently awaiting the death sentence in South Carolina for a double murder conviction.
Sigmon was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend's parents, William and Gladys Larke, in 2001 with a baseball bat in their Greenville County home.
He then abducted his former girlfriend, Rebecca Barbarbe, at gunpoint and shot at her after she escaped from his car.
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"I couldn’t have her, I wasn’t going to let anybody else have her," he later told authorities during his confession (via CBS News).
Sigmon received the death sentence after being found guilty for two counts of murder alongside a 30-year-sentence for first-degree burglary.
After numerous failed appeals over the years, Sigmon is currently scheduled to be executed on 7 March, 2025 and has now chosen his preferred way to die, should the sentence be carried out.
In South Carolina, the default execution method is electrocution, however, inmates can also select lethal injection or firing squad as an option — with Sigmon opting for the latter.
Execution by firing squad is rare in the US, with Sigmon being the first person to chose it in 15 years.
The method would see the condemned seated in a chair with a hood placed over their head. After the execution order is read out and the inmate makes their last statement, three volunteer officers from the Department of Corrections will fire at their chest.
According to NBC News, the grisly method was last used in Utah back in 2010 as the execution method for convicted killer Ronnie Lee Gardner.
Death by firing squad is currently legal in five US states and has only been used four times since 1960, all taking place in Utah.
Explaining why Sigmon had chosen death by firing squad, his attorney, Gerald 'Bo' King, said his client had faced an 'impossible' decision.
"Unless he elected lethal injection or the firing squad, he would die in South Carolina’s ancient electric chair, which would burn and cook him alive," he said in a statement (via NBC News) "But the alternative is just as monstrous."
King referred to previous concerns about lethal injection after three death row inmates recently executed in the state allegedly suffered a 'prolonged' death from the method.
"The only choice that remained is the firing squad," he continued. "Brad has no illusions about what being shot will do to his body. He does not wish to inflict that pain on his family, the witnesses or the execution team.
"Brad’s execution would set grim precedents for South Carolina."
Brenna Cooper