South Carolina was preparing this week to execute a man by firing squad, a capital punishment method that hasn’t been used in the US in nearly 15 years.
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Since the Supreme Court lifted its ban on capital punishment in 1976, states have used five different execution methods: lethal injection, electrocution, lethal gas, firing squad and hanging.
Brad Sigmon was scheduled to die Friday in South Carolina. He was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat at their home in 2001.
Here’s a look at how the US executes people:
Most US executions are by lethal injection
Lethal injection has been the preferred method in the modern era, with 1,428 carried out since 1976. Texas has done the most, killing 593 inmates, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre, a Washington DC-based non-profit centre.
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