A South Carolina man, convicted of misleading his ex -girlfriend's parents to death, has become the first prisoner of the death of the United States to be executed by dismissing a squad in the last 15 years.
Brad Sigmon was shot dead to death shortly after 18:00 local time (23:00 GMT) on Friday by three volunteers from the state adjustment department shooting rifles in his chest with specially designed bullets.
Sigmon, 67, was convicted of killing David and Gladys Larke with a baseball bat in 2001 before abducting his ex-girlfriend in shooting. She managed to escape as he fired at her.
He had requested death by fired the squad for the other two state -approved method: an electric chair and a deadly injection.
Chrysti Shain from the South Carolina adjustment department said Sigmon was declared dead by a doctor at 18:08 local time.
Three members of the Larke family were present to witness his death, she said, as well as Sigmon's spiritual advisor.
Sigmon was attached to a chair that had a pool below to catch blood, witnesses said.
He told witnesses that he wanted his final statement, “To be love and summoning to my fellow Christians, to help us to end the death penalty.”
“The eye for the eye was used as a justification for the jurors to seek the death penalty,” he added.
“At that time, I was too ignorant to know how wrong it was. Why? Because we no longer live under the Old Testament Law, but now we live under the New Testament.”
After his last statement, a hood was placed over his head.
A curtain, which hid three volunteers, opened at 18:01. At 18:05 the trio shoots 15 feet (4.6 m) without countdown.
Jeffrey Collins, a reporter from the Associated Press, said at a press conference that Sigmon had put a target on a red bcents over his heart.
When he was shot, his chest rose and fell several times, the reporter added.
The doctor made a checkup that took about 90 seconds before declaring it dead at 18:08.
The .308 Winchester TAP used city bullets are designed to split up and cause maximum damage. Medical experts have discussed the amount of pain they can cause.
Anna Dobbins, a Whnd-TV reporter, added that Sigmon was wearing a black jump suit, but there were bare weapons that “bent” when he was shot.
“I saw blood spraying when the bullets entered his body,” she told a press conference.
She said all the shots were fired at the same time and that witnesses were unable to see the weapons.
The prison guards also offered witnesses ear plugs to protect their ears from the sound of the staff, an added reporter for the publication and the Courier newspaper.
Consultation services are offered to every prison employee who have been traumatized by the execution, Shaine said.
ReutersSigmon's lawyer, Bo King, hoped for a stay at the last minute of the execution by South Carolina governor and accused the state of withholding information about the deadly injection process.
“Brad only wanted assurances that these drugs had not leaked or diluted or spoiled – what any of us would want to know about the medicines we are taking, or the food we eat, a little less money for our death,” he said in a statement after his death.
“It is uncomfortable that in 2025 South Carolina will execute one of its citizens in this bloody performance.”
King said that his client was suffering from mental illness and that the friendships he created in prison were proof that he was rehabilitated.
“Brad is someone who for his last meal wants to take three buckets with the original recipe Kentucky fried chicken so he can share with the boys he is closed with in Death Row,” he told Wyff-TV earlier on Friday.
“With his last meal, he wanted to share something special with them,” he said, later told reporters that the request for sharing had been denied.
Later, employees have confirmed that his last meal is four pieces of fried chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes with sauce, biscuits, cheesecake and sweet tea. The food is served on Wednesday evening.
Since 1977, only three people have died, shooting a squad, and all three have been in Utah. The last case was Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010.
Prior to Sigmon's execution, protests against death against death held a rally outside prison in Colombia.
They kept signs, saying that “the whole life is precious” and “you will not kill.”
The state allows witnesses to watch the death in front of Bulletproof Glass, but the executioners are hidden from the view to protect their identity.
South Carolina passed a law in 2023, requiring the identity of the execution team to remain secret.