South Carolina Preparing for State’s First Firing Squad Execution, Marking First Firing Squad Execution in U.S. in 15 Years

South Carolina law requires Brad Sigmon to ​“elect” how the state will kill him on March 7, 2025 — and he opt­ed for death by fir­ing squad. His choic­es were lethal injec­tion, elec­tro­cu­tion, or fir­ing squad, with elec­tro­cu­tion the default method of exe­cu­tion if no elec­tion is made. According to Mr. Sigmon’s attor­ney, Gerald ​“Bo” King, Mr. Sigmon chose the fir­ing squad out of con­cern about prob­lems with the state’s lethal injection protocol.

Since Mr. Sigmon’s deci­sion on February 21, 2025, his coun­sel has request­ed the South Carolina Supreme Court post­pone his exe­cu­tion until prison offi­cials pro­vide more infor­ma­tion about its lethal injec­tion drugs and pro­to­col. His attor­neys have argued in a new fil­ing that Mr. Sigmon faces an impos­si­ble choice between exe­cu­tion meth­ods: select a vio­lent death by fir­ing squad or risk a poten­tial­ly tor­tur­ous death via lethal injec­tion, about which he does not have ade­quate infor­ma­tion. In his fil­ing, Mr. Sigmon’s attor­ney cit­ed recent­ly released autop­sy results from Marion Bowman’s January 31^st exe­cu­tion by lethal injec­tion. The results show that Mr. Bowman received dou­ble the typ­i­cal lethal injec­tion drug dosage (10 grams, instead of 5 grams) used in oth­er states and fed­er­al exe­cu­tions. It also revealed that blood and flu­id were found in Mr. Bowman’s lungs, indi­cat­ing he suf­fered from pul­monary ede­ma. The autop­sy of Richard Moore, exe­cut­ed November 1, 2024, sim­i­lar­ly revealed that he was admin­is­tered the same, high dosage of pen­to­bar­bi­tal, deliv­ered in two sep­a­rate dos­es 11 minutes apart. 

Because of a ​“shield law” passed in 2023, the state is pre­clud­ed from pro­vid­ing spe­cif­ic infor­ma­tion regard­ing the exe­cu­tion drugs and the indi­vid­u­als involved in car­ry­ing out the exe­cu­tion. This also means that South Carolina’s pro­to­col for exe­cu­tion by fir­ing squad and lethal injec­tion have not been made avail­able to Mr. Sigmon and his coun­sel. His attor­neys con­tend that Mr. Sigmon should be informed about the lethal injec­tion drug’s cre­ation, qual­i­ty, and reli­a­bil­i­ty in order for him to have a mean­ing­ful choice in his method of exe­cu­tion. ​“If [South Carolina Department of Correction] SCDC’s attes­ta­tions as to the qual­i­ty and reli­a­bil­i­ty of its lethal injec­tion drugs were dubi­ous before Mr. Bowman’s autop­sy, they are now inde­fen­si­ble,” read Mr. Sigmon’s motion filed with the state Supreme Court.

In 2021, South Carolina passed a law that would allow for the use of the fir­ing squad in state exe­cu­tions. This leg­is­la­tion was par­tial­ly moti­vat­ed by the state’s inabil­i­ty to obtain lethal injec­tion drugs. The con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of this law was chal­lenged, but in 2024, the South Carolina Supreme Court decid­ed that along with lethal injec­tion and elec­tro­cu­tion, the fir­ing squad is not con­sid­ered cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment, as pris­on­ers can choose the method by which they die.

A year lat­er, in 2022, the SCDC announced the state was pre­pared to car­ry out an exe­cu­tion by fir­ing squad. According to a SCDC press release, ​“three fir­ing squad mem­bers will be behind the wall, with rifles fac­ing the inmate through the opening…The inmate will be strapped into the chair, and a hood will be placed over his head. A small aim point will be placed over his heart by a mem­ber of the exe­cu­tion team…[and] after the war­den reads the exe­cu­tion order, the team will fire.” With the shield law in place, SCDC is pre­clud­ed from pro­vid­ing addi­tion­al details about the execution process.

Mr. Sigmon was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 2001 for the mur­ders of his ex-girlfriend’s par­ents in their home, as well as well the kid­nap­ping and attempt­ed mur­der of his ex-girl­friend. Trial coun­sel for Mr. Sigmon, accord­ing to his cur­rent legal team, failed to present cru­cial mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence to the jury — includ­ing evi­dence of brain dam­age, men­tal ill­ness, and child­hood trau­ma that may have led jurors to choose life impris­on­ment with­out parole rather than the death penal­ty. Mr. King also told local news that Mr. Sigmon ​“is spend­ing a lot of time in prayer. He is deeply devout and has spent pret­ty much every day of his incar­cer­a­tion try­ing to express his remorse and pen­i­tence for these crimes.”

Only four oth­er states allow for the use of the fir­ing squad: Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Utah. Three exe­cu­tions by fir­ing squad have been car­ried out in in the U.S. since 1977 — all of which have tak­en place in Utah — with the last use in the 2010 exe­cu­tion of Ronnie Lee Gardner.