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Convict executed by firing squad in US, first since 2010
2025-03-08 22:04:40 / BOTA
A man on death row in the US state of South Carolina (southeast), Brad Sigmon, 67, was sentenced to death by firing squad on Friday, the first in the country since 2010. He was shot in the chest.
He was sentenced to death in 2002 for beating his ex-girlfriend's parents, David and Gladys Larke, to death with a baseball bat before attempting to kidnap her.
"The execution was carried out at 6:05 p.m. by a three-man firing squad and he was pronounced dead by a doctor at 6:08 p.m. ," said state corrections spokeswoman Chrysti Shain.
This is the sixth execution carried out in the United States in 2025, all the others by lethal injection, except for one by nitrogen inhalation in Alabama (southeast), a state which inaugurated in January 2024 this method, until then new and controversial, compared by UN experts to a form of "torture".
But another state in the south of the country, Louisiana, will resume executions after a 15-year hiatus, also using nitrogen inhalation, on March 18.
South Carolina authorities set an execution date for Brad Sigmon a month ago.
State law makes the electric chair the default method of execution, but allows the condemned the option of death by firing squad or lethal injection.
The three previous executions in South Carolina since September – after a hiatus of more than 13 years – all opted for lethal injection.
But Brad Sigmon chose the firing squad, out of desperation, according to his lawyers.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states. Six others (Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee) observe a moratorium on executions by order of the governor.
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