A DOUBLE murderer has been executed by firing squad – the first time in 15 years a convict has chosen to die by the gun.
Brad Sigmon kept breathing after special bullets were shot at his heart by three volunteer riflemen at the South Carolina Department of Corrections in Columbia on Friday evening.
Brad Sigmon, 67, has been executed by firing squad in South Carolina[/caption]
Protesters gathered outside the South Carolina Department of Corrections ahead of the execution[/caption]
David and Gladys Larke were murdered by Brad with a baseball bat in 2001[/caption]
Sigmon, 67, was convicted of beating to death with a baseball bat his ex-girlfriend’s parents, David and Gladys Larke, at their Taylors home in 2001.
He chose the firing squad over the electric chair or lethal injection, which he feared would cook him alive and make it feel like he was drowning.
The death row inmate of 23 years wore a black jumpsuit with a hood over his head as he was strapped into a chair.
A bullseye target showed the executioners where to shoot as they took aim from 15ft away behind a curtain.
Sigmon breathed heavily as he awaited the rain of bullets.
All three gunmen opened fire at the same time, in front of about a dozen witnesses.
Sigmon tensed briefly when he was shot, the target was blasted off his chest, and he appeared to give another breath or two as a red stain spread across his chest.
A doctor entered the death chamber to examine Sigmon about a minute later, before declaring him dead at 6:08 p.m.
Gerald “Bo” King, Sigmon’s lawyer, said the decision was because he feared a lack of transparency could be covering up how painful these methods really are.
Sigmon made a last gasp for life on Wednesday, when he pleaded with the Supreme Court to halt his execution.
He argued that South Carolina’s refusal to disclose information about its lethal injection procedure violates his due-process rights.
Gerald “Bo” King, Simgon’s lawyer, said it took around 20 minutes for the last three men executed in the state to die from the lethal injection.
He said Sigmon faced “an impossible choice” between bullets that will “break the bones in his chest and destroy his heart” and a having his “lungs filling with blood and fluid” after the injection.
Bo also said Sigmon avoided the chair because he feared it would “burn and cook him alive”.
A group of protesters holding signs with messages such as “All life is precious” and “Execute justice not people” gathered outside the prison before Sigmon’s execution.
BRUTAL MURDER
Sigmon pulped the couple in April 2001, just a week after breaking up with their daughter, Rebecca Barbare.
He and Rebeca had been in a relationship for around three years, living in a trailer park near David and Gladys’s home.
After a night of crack cocaine and drinking, Sigmon told a friend he was going to “get Becky for leaving him” and would “tie her parents up”, according to court documents.
When Rebecca took her kids to school, Sigmon showed up at her parents’ house armed with a baseball bat.
He bludgeoned them alternately, striking each nine times over the head.
A 2014 photo of Brad Sigmon[/caption]
Three volunteer gunmen fired rounds at Sigmon[/caption]
David’s “skull was […] almost broken in two”, the court heard during the 2002 trial.
Sigmon then stole David’s gun and waiting for Rebecca to get back.
He marched her into the car at gunpoint but she managed to escape, fleeing as he blasted shots in her direction, according to the court docs.
The murderer fled the state but was captured after 11 days on the run in Tennessee.
When he was arrested, Sigmon told detectives he had planned to murder Rebecca and then turn the gun on himself.
He said: “I couldn’t have her. I wasn’t going to let anybody else have her.”
RARE METHOD
Just three convicts have been executed by firing squad in the US since 1976 – and all of them in Utah.
Rebecca, Sigmon’s ex, told USA Today she does not believe in the death penalty, but that he “should answer for what he’s done”.
Randy Gardner, brother of Ronnie Lee Gardner, the last man to be killed by firing squad in the US, has slammed the fact the method still exists.
South Carolina lets convicts on death row choose their execution method out of lethal injection, electric chair or firing squad[/caption]
South Carolina allows spectators to watch executions of convicts[/caption]
The South Carolina Department of Corrections, where Sigmon was executed[/caption]
He said: “I think its horrendous. I think it’s very barbaric.
“I didn’t witness my brother’s execution, but I got to see his body after.
“I’ve got the autopsy photos of what it looked like, and it’s just mutilated my brother’s body. I think it’s terrible.”
Randy said he is against capital punishment entirely, adding: “To me, it’s revenge.”
The majority of executions in South Carolina are by electrocution, though the three most recent were by lethal injection.
But it has posed some issues.
Some states have struggled to get hold of the required drugs due to an EU ban on selling them.
And in some cases, executioners have found it difficult to hit a vein with the needle.
In January, autopsy reports revealed that convicts suffered pain similar to the sensation of drowning as they were executed with the injection.
Citing the reports, the US Department of Justice withdrew its lethal injection protocol for federal executions.
There are just five states nationwide that still offer the death method.
Lethal injection controversy in South Carolina
By Patrick Harrington, foreign news reporter
THE three most recent executions in South Carolina were by lethal injection, and the cases have sparked controversy.
It took around 20 minutes before each of the three men were officially declared dead.
Complicating the situation is a law passed in 2023 which restricts much of the information about executions being made public.
It requires the identities of execution team members remain secret and forbids the publication of information about how the drugs are bought by the state.
This follows a growing number of pharmaceutical companies refusing to sell their drugs to be used in executions.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit challenging the state law in January.
It wrote: “This ban not only further departs from the state’s history of making execution-related information publicly available but criminalizes the disclosure of this information by anyone for any reason.
“It thus silences the scientists, doctors, journalists, former correctional officials, lawyers, and citizens who have scrutinized the safety, efficacy, morality, and legality of South Carolina’s use of lethal injection.”
The state has released only one of two available autopsies from the recent executions, and Brad Sigmon’s lawyers say it shows an unusual amount of fluid in the man’s lungs.
