Brad Sigmon. Photo: South Carolina Department of Corrections
Brad Sigmon, a South Carolina death row inmate, has chosen to be executed by firing squad on March 7. Sigmon, convicted for the brutal 2001 murders of his ex-girlfriend’s parents, will be the first person in the state to be executed this way since the method was legalized in July 2024.
The Crime and Conviction
Sigmon was found guilty of killing David and Gladys Larke in their Greenville County home with a baseball bat. After the murders, he kidnapped his ex-girlfriend and fired at her when she escaped from his moving car. Fortunately, she survived.
Why He Chose the Firing Squad
Sigmon had the option to choose between lethal injection, the electric chair, or the firing squad. His legal team argued that recent executions in South Carolina using lethal injection were unnecessarily prolonged, leaving inmates strapped to a gurney for over 20 minutes. Given those concerns, Sigmon decided the firing squad was his “only choice.”
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How the Execution Will Happen
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the firing squad execution involves the inmate being strapped to a chair with a black hood over their head. Five shooters, standing 20 feet away, will aim their rifles—one of which is loaded with blanks to shield the shooters from knowing who fired the fatal shots.
Legal Challenges and Last-Minute Appeals
Sigmon’s attorneys tried to delay the execution, hoping to review an autopsy report from a recent lethal injection case, but their request was denied. He remains at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, S.C., where he will be executed unless an appeal changes his fate.
What’s Next?
If carried out, Sigmon’s execution will be the first by firing squad in the U.S. since 2010, when Ronnie Gardner was executed in Utah. His case continues to spark debates about execution methods, prisoner rights, and the death penalty in America.
