Article of Interest: Spiritual Adviser Reflects on Relationship with Executed Death Row Prisoner

A March 25, 2025, sto­ry in Religion News Service details the spir­i­tu­al jour­ney of Rev. Hillary Taylor, a United Methodist min­is­ter who served as a spir­i­tu­al advis­er to Brad Sigmon, the South Carolina death row pris­on­er exe­cut­ed by fir­ing squad on March 7, 2025. Rev. Taylor, exec­u­tive direc­tor of South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, reveals the pro­found human con­nec­tion she devel­oped with Mr. Sigmon, high­light­ing how ​“he loved to share with peo­ple the ways the love of Jesus changed him.”

Over four in-per­son meet­ings and numer­ous let­ters exchanged since 2020, Rev. Taylor and Mr. Sigmon devel­oped a com­plex rela­tion­ship that she said tran­scend­ed the bound­aries of spir­i­tu­al advis­ing. They shared per­son­al strug­gles, with Rev. Taylor con­fid­ing in Mr. Sigmon about the chal­lenges she faced pas­tor­ing rur­al church­es dur­ing COVID-19, and Mr. Sigmon pro­vid­ing emo­tion­al sup­port. Rev Taylor recount­ed how they teased one anoth­er about their rival foot­ball teams (Clemson v. South Carolina) and enjoyed moments of con­nec­tion. During their final meet­ing on Ash Wednesday, just two days before his exe­cu­tion, Rev. Taylor and Mr. Sigmon took com­mu­nion togeth­er, and she anoint­ed his head with ash­es, a sym­bol of repen­tance and mor­tal­i­ty. Mr. Sigmon, who had tak­en a Bible College course in prison, became what Rev. Taylor described as an ​“infor­mal chap­lain” to oth­er death row pris­on­ers, shar­ing his spir­i­tu­al jour­ney and seek­ing to sup­port his fellow prisoners.