South Carolina to carry out first U.S. firing squad execution since 2010

by Chris Lefkow

A South Carolina man convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend's parents has chosen to be put to death by firing squad next month in what would be the first such execution in the United States since 2010.

Brad Sigmon, 67, is to be executed on March 7 at a prison in Columbia, the South Carolina capital, for the 2001 murders of David and Gladys Larke, who were beaten to death with a baseball bat.

Sigmon had a choice between lethal injection, firing squad or the electric chair as his manner of execution.

Gerald "Bo" King, one of his lawyers, said Sigmon had chosen the firing squad after being placed in an "impossible" position, forced to make an "abjectly cruel" decision about how he would die.

"Unless he elected lethal injection or the firing squad, he would die in South Carolina's ancient electric chair, which would burn and cook him alive," King said in a statement.

"But the alternative is just as monstrous," he said. "If he chose lethal injection, he risked the prolonged death suffered by all three of the men South Carolina has executed since September."

Sigmon, if the execution goes ahead, would be the first person ever executed by firing squad in South Carolina.

The last US firing squad execution was in Utah in 2010. Two others have also been carried out by firing squad in Utah -- in 1996 and in 1977.

The 1977 execution of convicted murderer Gary Gilmore was the basis for the 1979 book "The Executioner's Song" by Norman Mailer.

Louisiana plans to execute a Death Row inmate in March using another controversial method -- nitrogen gas.

A second convicted murderer had also been set to die by nitrogen gas in Louisiana next month but the 81-year-old inmate died Saturday of natural causes.

Alabama has carried out four executions by nitrogen asphyxiation and is the only US state currently using the method, which has been denounced by UN experts as cruel and inhuman.

The execution is performed by pumping nitrogen gas into a facemask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.

Other U.S. states use lethal injection but three -- Idaho, Mississippi and Oklahoma -- have joined South Carolina and Utah in authorizing the use of firing squads.

- Death chamber renovated -

According to the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC), the death chamber at the prison where Sigmon is to be executed has been renovated to accomodate a firing squad.

Bullet-resistant glass has been placed between the witness room and death chamber.

The inmate will be restrained in a metal chair with a hood over his head 15 feet (five meters) away from a wall with a rectangular opening, the SCDC said.

A three-person firing squad of SCDC volunteers armed with rifles will fire through the opening in the wall.

All three rifles will have live ammunition.

An "aim point" will be placed above the inmate's heart by a member of the execution team, the SCDC said.

There have been five executions in the United States this year and there were 25 last year.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others -- California, Oregon and Pennsylvania -- have moratoriums in place.

Three states -- Arizona, Ohio and Tennessee -- that had paused executions have recently announced plans to resume them.

President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and on his first day in the White House he called for an expansion of its use "for the vilest crimes."

© Agence France-Presse