The shots were all fired at once. There was a splash of blood when the bullets entered his body.
On Friday, a man named Brad Sigmon, who was 67 years old, in South Carolina, was put to death by firing squad. This was the first execution carried out by firing squad in the United States in fifteen years.
In 2001, Sigmon was found guilty of using a baseball bat to kill his ex-girlfriend’s parents. According to Chrysti Shain, a prison spokeswoman for the South Carolina prison system, Sigmon was executed at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia.
The fatal shots were fired around 6:05 pm (2305 GMT), according to Shain, and Sigmon was pronounced dead by a medic three minutes after the shots were fired after that.
Sigmon was strapped to a chair in the death chamber with a little red bullseye placed over his heart, according to the journalists who witnessed the execution.
Sigmon was clad in a black jumpsuit at the time of the meeting. In his farewell statement, which was read by his attorney Gerald “Bo” King, Sigmon conveyed a message of love and solicited the assistance of Christians in their efforts to abolish the death penalty.
The firing squad, which consisted of volunteers from the South Carolina Department of Corrections, placed a hood over his head before firing their weapons through a slit in the wall from a distance of approximately 15 feet away.
“The shots were all fired at once,” said journalist Anna Dobbins of WYFF News 4. “There was a splash of blood when the bullets entered his body.
It was a gory scene, according to King, who characterised the execution of Sigmon as being terrible and violent.
According to what he said, “It is incomprehensible that in the year 2025, South Carolina would carry out the execution of one of its citizens in this shocking spectacle.”
“Lethal injection, the electric chair, or the firing squad were the three options that were presented to Sigmon as potential methods of execution.
“It was stated by his attorney that he made the decision to be executed by firing squad after being placed in a “impossible” position.
“When asked about his decision, King stated, “If he chose lethal injection, he risked the prolonged death suffered by all three of the men South Carolina has executed since September.”
The electric chair, he added, “would burn and cook him alive,” and he referred to both of these possibilities as monstrous.
The last execution carried out by firing squad in the United States took place in the state of Utah in the year 2010, with prior incidents occurring in the years 1996 and 1977.
Lethal injection has been the predominant method of execution ever since the Supreme Court of the United States revived the death sentence in 1976.
Concerns with the protocols for lethal injection have led some states to seek out alternate methods of execution.
The state of Alabama has recently carried out four executions using nitrogen gas, a practice that has been deemed cruel and inhumane by experts from the United Nations International.
There are now five states that have authorised firing squads as an alternate method of execution. These states are State of South Carolina, Utah, Idaho, Mississippi, and Oklahoma.
As of now, there have been six executions carried out in the United States, following the 25 that took place in 2024.
Twenty-three states in the United States have done away with the death penalty, while the states of California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania have moratoriums in effect.
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, is a staunch supporter of the death penalty and has advocated for its extension, claiming that it should be used for the most heinous crimes.