South Carolina executes 67-year-old man by firing squad in rare U.S. execution
AP Photo/Trent Nelson
Brad Keith Sigmon, a 67-year-old inmate at the South Carolina Department of Corrections, has been executed by firing squad, marking the first such execution in the United States since 2010 and only the fourth since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.
Sigmon, convicted of a double homicide in 2001, had the option to choose between lethal injection, the electric chair, or a firing squad. He opted for the latter. His execution was carried out on Friday at 6:08 p.m. ET, according to prison officials.
Sigmon was sentenced to death for the murder of his former girlfriend’s parents and the subsequent kidnapping of his ex-girlfriend, who later managed to escape.
In his final statement, he urged Christians to advocate for the abolition of the death penalty, quoting Bible verses on forgiveness. “Nowhere does God in the New Testament give man the authority to kill another man,” he stated.
His attorneys sought executive clemency, arguing that he committed the crime while suffering from an undiagnosed, inherited mental illness.
However, their efforts were rejected by both the U.S. Supreme Court and South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster.
