Entries tagged with “Brad Sigmon”
Religion
,Mar 31, 2025
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…
Methods of Execution
,Mar 04, 2025
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…
Executions
Methods of Execution
,Feb 06, 2024
South Carolina Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Constitutionality of Electrocution and Firing Squad, Considers Scope of Secrecy Law
On February 6, 2024, the South Carolina Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Owens v. Stirling, a case in which death-sentenced prisoners challenged the state’s electrocution and firing squad execution methods as unconstitutional. A South Carolina trial court had previously held an extensive evidentiary hearing and issued an injunction against use of those methods based on the state’s constitutional prohibition against “cruel,” “unusual,” or “corporal” punishments. For almost 90 minutes the…
Executions
Methods of Execution
,Feb 09, 2023
South Carolina Supreme Court Blocks Efforts to Conceal Lethal Injection Information
On January 26, South Carolina’s Supreme Court ordered the state to turn over information about its attempts to obtain lethal injection drugs, as part of a suit challenging aspects of the state’s methods of execution. South Carolina has not carried out an execution since 2011, stating that it was too difficult to obtain lethal injection drugs. The Court’s order required the state to disclose what efforts it has made to acquire them. A lower court had ruled that the alternate methods of…
Executions
Executions Overview
,Methods of Execution
,Oct 11, 2022
South Carolina Supreme Court to Hear Argument One Month Sooner on Constitutionality of Electric Chair and Firing Squad
The South Carolina Supreme Court will hear argument one month sooner on the state’s appeal of a trial court ruling that declared two of its statutorily methods of execution — death by electric chair and firing squad — unconstitutional. The argument will now be held on December 13, 2022 in the Supreme Court Courtroom in Columbia. Argument initially had been set for January 12, 2023 at Coastal Carolina University. The court did not provide any explanation for the scheduling change. The appeal…
Executions
Executions Overview
,Methods of Execution
,Sep 09, 2022
South Carolina Trial Court Rules in Favor of Death-Row Prisoners Challenging Execution Methods
A South Carolina trial court has issued an injunction preventing the state from carrying out executions using a firing squad or the electric chair, ruling that those methods violate the state’s constitutional prohibition against “cruel, unusual, and corporal punishments.” In a 38-page opinion issued September 6, 2022, Richland County Court of Common Pleas Judge Jocelyn Newman (pictured) opinion offered a sweeping condemnation of the state’s 2021 method-of-execution statute, which made the…
Executions
Executions Overview
,Methods of Execution
,Aug 18, 2022
South Carolina Court Set to Rule on Prisoners’ Challenge to Electric Chair and Firing Squad Executions After Completion of Methods of Execution Trial
A decision on the constitutionality of South Carolina’s newly adopted execution methods now rests in the hands a trial court judge after lawyers for death-row prisoners and the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) presented four days of conflicting expert testimony about the amount of pain suffered during firing squad and electric chair executions. The trial before Circuit Court Judge Jocelyn Newman (pictured) was conducted in response to a lawsuit filed on March 21, 2022 by…
Executions
Methods of Execution
,Apr 26, 2022
Executions Halted in South Carolina Amid Challenges to Constitutionality of Firing Squad and Electric Chair
The South Carolina Supreme Court has halted two scheduled executions, including one that would have been the state’s first execution by firing squad, amid ongoing legal challenges by state death-row prisoners to the state’s execution methods. In separate orders, the state’s high court issued stays of execution for Richard Moore, who was scheduled to be put to death by firing squad on April 29, 2022, and to Brad Sigmon, who faced a May 13, 2022 execution date. It was the third stay of execution…
Executions
Methods of Execution
,Apr 06, 2022
South Carolina Death-Row Prisoners File Suit to Block Firing-Squad Executions Until Courts Address Challenges to Execution Methods
Lawyers for three men on South Carolina’s death row have asked the state supreme court to defer setting execution dates until the courts resolve pending legal challenges to the state’s controversial execution methods. The request was filed in the South Carolina Supreme Court on March 21, 2022 on behalf of Brad Keith Sigmon, Freddie Eugene Owens, and Gary Dubose Terry, just days after South Carolina Department of Corrections officials announced they were prepared to perform executions by firing…
Executions
Methods of Execution
,Jun 17, 2021
South Carolina Supreme Court Halts Executions of Brad Sigmon and Freddie Owens
The South Carolina Supreme Court has vacated death warrants for two death-row prisoners scheduled to be executed this month, staying their executions until the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDOC) complies with a newly enacted state law requiring that it offer condemned prisoners the option of being executed by firing squad. In separate orders issued on June 16, 2021 in the cases of Brad Sigmon, who faced a June 18 execution, and Freddie Owens, who was scheduled to be executed June…